Technology news and Jobs arrow VIRTUALISATION arrow Former SAP star Agassi to set up $1 billion electric car network in Australia
Former SAP star Agassi to set up $1 billion electric car network in Australia E-mail
by Stan Beer   
Thursday, 23 October 2008
The man once touted as the next CEO of SAP Shai Agassi has forged agreements between his company, Better Place, Australian utility heavyweight AGL Energy and the financial advisory arm of Macquarie Group, to launch a AUD$1 billion electric car infrastructure project in Australia.

Better Place, which has already establishedelectric car programs in Israel and Denmark, has chosen Australia asits prototype for rolling out electric vehicle infrastructure in largecountries. The project, will require $1 billion in funding, which willbe raised by Macquarie Capital Group.

A Palo Alto Silicon Valley startup company, Better Place was founded byIsraeli American Shai Agassi, former president of the product &technology group and executive board member of German business softwaregiant SAP.

At the beginning of the year, with the blessing of the IsraeliGovernment, a joint venture was announced with car makers Nissan andRenault to build an electric car infrastructure throughout Israel usinga business model similar to the way the mobile phone industry works.

Under the Israeli joint venture arrangement, car makers Nissan andRenault are supplying the electric cars. Better Place supplies LithiumIon batteries and is building a ubiquitous electric car infrastructurethroughout Israel, including 500,000 parking-meter-like charging pointson Israeli streets and service stations where spent battery packs willbe replaced with freshly charged packs within minutes.

The battery packs provided by Better Place, which are claimed to have arange of about 200km, will not be owned by subscribers to the schemebut will be part of the service infrastructure where users pay for thenumber of kilometers driven. Users who charge batteries from their homewill be given a credit for the kilometers they put back into batteries,not unlike the way electricity users with solar panels are given creditwhen they supply energy to the grid.

In late March, it was announced that Denmark had put up its hand tobecome the second testbed for Better Place. The Danish Oil and NaturalGas company, known as ‘DONG Energy’, is partnering with Better Place tocreate a new venture called Better Place Denmark.

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