Check out this video of a recent speech by Shai Agassi, founder of Project Better Place.
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/03/18/video-shai-agassis-amazing-speech-on-the-future-of-electric-ca/ (You can fast forward about 5 minutes past the intro) This is a startup with a business plan for how to make electric cars practical. The general approach is: Design electric cars with standardized batteries that can be swapped in and out quickly Treat the batteries as a service rather than an object. You sign up for battery capacity wherever and whenever you need it, and it is the company's job to figure out how best to provide it. Two ways they do it are: In town, provide electrical outlets at many parking places (with electricity billed back to the company and included in your service fee). On highways, build a network of "swap stations", where you dive into a bay like a car wash and a mechanism removes the old battery and inserts a fully charged one in minutes. This way, car companies are relieved of the risks and challenges of batteries and infrastructure. In fact, Shai claims that in their initial rollout in Israel, their plan is like a cell phone plan: If you sign up for a long enough period of time (in this case 6 years) they will give you the electric car for free. They now have an official law in Israel that brings this plan into action, and they have an agreement with Renault/Nissan to build the cars. I think this is exciting, as it addresses the problem from a systematic social/economic approach rather than a merely technological one. And they have $200 million in seed funding in hand. I used to work for this guy in my old job. He is a fabulous communicator, (as you can see in the video), but not only that. He has always demonstrated unusual clarity of vision and seems to laser- in on the key aspects of any problem. He seems just the right guy to actually pull this off. Jeff _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
