Better Place

Another high-tech tour offered by Career Israel was to an emerging company called Better Place. The goal of Better Place is to replace all family cars in Israel by vehicles run 100% by electricity. The Electronic Vehicles (EVs) have a lithium ion battery underneath the car which need about 1 minute of charge time for every 1 minute of drive time.

The goal is to have charging stations (1 meter poles) located in parking lots nationwide so cars can be charged while the driver is at home, the mall, even work. Because the battery will not stay charged for long trips, 100 battery switch stations will be located nationwide. In the same time it takes to pump gas, the car is driven over a robot which takes out the emptying battery and replaces it with one fully charged. A computer onboard incorporates GPS and customer service assistance. Owners will pay a monthly service fee to fund unlimited customer service and charging/switch stations.

As part of the tour, we were able to test drive an EV. They make no noise and accelerate smoothly because there is no gear switching. The ride was extremely comfortable and the technology inside was pretty cool.

The company began just 3 years ago by Shai Agassi (only 42 years old) and will release the first working cars in Fall 2011. The investment in creating a reliable network is high and full of risk, but will hopefully end in a great return. The main flaw I see in this operation is the lack of green energy to change the global impact of the billions of cars on the road. Better Place sees the potential of running cars on 100% clean energy but is not performing or funding research in that area.