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Our Blogs The BeerFiles Israel to use mobile phone economics in bold electric cars venture
Our Blogs The BeerFiles Israel to use mobile phone economics in bold electric cars venture | Israel to use mobile phone economics in bold electric cars venture |
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| by Stan Beer | |
| Thursday, 24 January 2008 | |
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Page 1 of 2 Related storiesUnder the joint venture arrangement, car makers Nissan and Renault will supply the electric cars, while Project Better Place will supply Lithium Ion batteries and build a ubiquitous electric car infrastructure throughout Israel, which will include 500,000 parking-meter-like charging points on Israeli streets and service stations where spent battery packs will be replaced with freshly charged packs within minutes. The Project Better Place venture is not unlike the way the mobile telecommunications industry is run today. A carrier provides the base stations and network while through its channels it sells handsets made by Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and others together with usage plans. The battery packs provided by Project Better Place, which are claimed to have a range of about 200km, will not be owned by subscribers to the scheme but will be part of the service infrastructure where users pay for the number of kilometers driven. Users who charge batteries from their home will be given a credit for the kilometers they put back into batteries, not unlike the way electricity users with solar panels are given credit when they supply energy to the grid. Agassi's vision of getting the first electric cars on the road in Israel by 2009 and 100,000 by 2010 is being given plenty of backing in high places. Israeli industrial mogul Idan Ofer is reported to have invested $100 million in Project Better Place and is chairman of the company, while the Israeli Government has promised to keep taxes on electric vehicles at a low 10%. |
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