Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 28 March 2008 18:44
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
The electric vehicle (EV) project by Shai Agassi, now underway in
Israel, will see electric cars on sale from next year, matched by an
infrastructure of charging stations that will replace flat batteries
with charged ones. Now Denmark has signed up to the plan, aiming to
charge the batteries with wind power, with at least 30 more countries
wanting to get on the electric bandwagon.
Shai Agassi, an Israeli technology entrepreneur that was an SAP board member from 2001 to 2007, had a dream: to deliver electric cars to the world, sold in a similar way to mobile phones and voice minutes today.
A fascinating article in the International Herald Tribune
gives details on Shai Agassi and the project in Israel, which only got the go-ahead in January 2008, while Agassi’s
own blog, ‘The Long Tailpipe’, gives further valuable background, including how Agassi got the support of Israel's President and Prime Minister, with the project funded by US $200m of venture capital, not by Israeli Government funds.
Using Israel as a test bed, thousands of car charging spots will be installed, as well as hundreds of battery changing stations, to help Israel massively reduce its dependence on oil, help to clean up the atmosphere, and prove to the world that electric cars and accompanying infrastructure aren’t just an impossible dream, but are fully possible with today’s technology.
The cars will be powered by lithium-ion batteries capable of delivering a 200km range of a single charge, and with the electric cars and the lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Renault-Nissan, the first cars are due to go on sale next year, with a range of models in full production due to go on sale by 2010.
More than 30 countries are already interested in replicating the project, with Denmark the first to sign a deal with Shai Agassi’s companies. These are his US company based in California called ‘
Project Better Place’, alongside the Israeli holding company also is called ‘
Israel Corporation’.
Denmark already produces 20% of its power through wind generation, with only 13% of that power regularly used by the Danes. The other 7% gets sold to Norway and Germany, sometimes at very cheap prices, with Agassi saying that an electric car infrastructure is the perfect place for that spare energy to go.
Much wind energy is produced at night, when temperatures are cooler. Likewise, most cars are stored in their garages at night – meaning the spare wind energy can be used to recharge an electric car fleet.
The Danish Oil and Natural Gas company, known as ‘DONG Energy’, is partnering with Project Better Place to create a new venture called Better Place Denmark, with the desire to make the EV dream a Danish reality.
Please read onto page 2 for more information about Dong Energy’s plans and for details of an interview with Shai Agassi, with details on how the mobile phone subscription-based sales model will work on page 3.
