I’ve been meaning to write something about this for a while since I read about it in Wired. Better Place is a company formed by ex-SAP product chief Shai Agassi, it’s mission is to end the worlds dependence on fossil fuels for transport. No small objectives there then.
To be honest I’d never heard of better place until a few months ago. I came across it while I was doing some reading into alternative fuels, and it struck me as a fantastic idea. The Wired gives a much better overview than I could, but in short Better Place proposes to build whole new infrastructures for the use of electric cars and vehicles. To help achieve this Shai has re-thought the business model we use for buying cars and fuel.
Cars are offered at a discount, subsidised by the energy companies in the same way as mobile phone companies subsidise handsets. As a customer you subscribe to a monthly energy tariff as you would a mobile phone. The phone becomes a car, and the cell stations become recharging points.
With Better Place and the energy companies building the network of charging points and providing a standardised battery technology, the car makers can concentrate of building cars to make use of that infrastructure.
They’ve already got Israel and Denmark lined up, and Renault/Nissan designing and building cars. Take a read through the Wired article and see what you think. It’s an idea that could change the world.