A California-based start-up will begin selling electric cars in Israel next month that include a subscription package for a leased battery and the costs of recharging the vehicle.

Instead of owning the batteries, consumers will be able to purchase a subscription for a certain number of kilometers per year, much like cellphone owners purchase their minutes.

The company, Better Place, hopes the strategy will help the industry overcome one of the major challenges facing widespread adoption of electric cars: the limited range of existing battery technology.

Better Place will sell an electric sedan, made by Renault, that will have a range of about 100 miles per charge; for longer trips, car owners will be able to exchange batteries at swap stations located across Israel.

One package includes the cost of the vehicle and 25,000 miles per year for three years for $46,000.

According to Better Place, that subscription would end up costing consumers 35 percent less than purchasing and fueling a gas-powered vehicle over three years.

The subscriptions also include the installation of home charging stations.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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VHS or Beta? Blu Ray or HD? The race for supremacy in technological innovation is often the stuff of legend and the question of whether electric vehicles will more likely be “refueled” by plugging in or by swapping discharged batteries for fresh ones is no different. Well, maybe a little different. In the case of EVs, it is quite possible the two technologies, although competing on some level, could both win and flourish simultaneously.

The obvious advantage of pulling a car into a station and swapping a spent battery for a fresh one is the amount of time it takes compared to plugging-in and charging. As demonstrated in the video below, cars employing the Better Place model can be completely rejuvenated with a fresh battery in just over a minute. In terms of charging stations, so-called Level Two chargers (fast-charging DC stations) will charge a battery in 10-25 minutes, usually only recharging a battery to 80 percent of capacity in that time.

But because of the specific infrastructure needed to make the switching station model work, Better Place cars like the Renault Fluence ZE can also be plugged-in and charged via Level One (slow-charging) and Level Two like the Nissan LEAF, Chevy Volt and other EVs currently on the American market or headed that way.

Currently, Better Place is focusing on the populations dense markets of Israel and Denmark, but the company’s founder and CEO, Shai Agassi said in a recent interview with NPR that he hopes to prove the viability of the switching station concept in corridors in Australia and then in the U.S.

Article by Timothy B. Hurst, appearing courtesy Earth & Industry.

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I notice that Shai Agassi of Project Better Place was interviewed on NPR again this morning. Holy cow, that guy has wonderful PR; it’s hard to turn around without running into him presenting his idea (ubiquitous electric vehicle battery swapping stations).

But does it seem practical for a landmass the size of the US? Agassi’s talking point is the “ABCs” of EVs: Automobiles, Batteries, and Charging, in which he reminds us that all the money we’ve invested in the first two will not win the day if we fail to deal properly with the third. Of course this is true – and battery swapping is a wonderful solution for certain parts of the world, e.g., countries like Israel (its first customer). Israel is extremely dense, and surrounded by oil-rich enemies.

I’m no fan of big oil myself, but I just can’t see the battery swapping stations all over a landmass like the continental US — 3.5 million square miles, 600 times the size of Israel. Far more credible, in my opinion, is the following scenario:

a) The introduction of EVs will happen gradually, starting with early adopters whose life styles are a good fit for electric transportation: multi-car families with an available place to charge at night, and one car primarily used to commute within a local region.

b) While this is playing itself out over a period of years, OEM production volume will be ramping, quality issues will be resolving, battery technology will improve and costs will fall. Simultaneously, we’ll see the construction of charging stations at the workplace, movie theaters, etc.

c) The replacement of all internal combustion engine-based cars and trucks (230 million in the US) will require several decades, and will happen with fast-charging (“Level 3,” high-power charging) – probably delivered using the infrastructure of filling stations.

d) In the meanwhile, Better Place will be incorporated into geographies in which it makes sense.

Having said all this, I sure wish I could afford 1/100th the PR horsepower of Agassi — a true business visionary who hasn’t overlooked what it takes to get his story told.

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For those familiar with big cities, they are well aware of the ever present taxi sluggishly moving through the streets and making frequent stops. Obviously they generate plenty of gas emissions. Better Place, a leading electric vehicles service provider with the support of the U.S. Department of Transportation, is planning on bringing a switchable battery, electric taxi program to the San Francisco Bay Area.

San Francisco became in 2005 one of the first cities to introduce hybrid vehicles for taxi service, with a fleet of 15 Ford Escape Hybrids. The original Escape Hybrids were retired after 300,000 miles per vehicle.

Meanwhile, two electric taxi prototypes have recently debuted in London. They are vehicles from Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, two of Europe’s largest producers of taxi cabs. There is a third demonstration project in Tokyo, a city that has some 60,000 taxis — more than London, Paris, and New York combined.

In 2000 North America’s first hybrid taxi was put into service in Vancouver, British Columbia, operating a 2001 Toyota Prius, which traveled over 206,000 miles before being retired.

Several major cities in the world are adding hybrid taxis to their taxicab fleets, led by San Francisco where hybrid represent almost 50% of its taxicab fleet as of March 2010, and New York City where hybrids taxis represent around 28% of the total fleet by mid 2010. Unlike conventional gasoline cars, hybrids get better fuel economy, do well at slow speeds or idling, and have cleaner emissions.

In August 2008 Boston mandated that all its 1,825 taxi fleet must be converted to hybrids by 2015. As of March 2009 about 10% of the taxicab fleet were already hybrids as owner voluntarily began using hybrids.

Denver and Seattle introduced their first hybrid taxis in 2007, as did Arlington; Virginia now has a fleet of 85 environmentally friendly hybrid cabs. Chicago is following New York City’s lead by proposing a mandate for Chicago’s entire fleet of 6,700 taxicabs to become hybrid by January 2014.

In October 2009, a fleet of 26 Toyota Prius began operating in Phoenix, Arizona, becoming the country’s second all-hybrid taxicab fleet after Arlington, Virginia.

Better Place, which plans to introduce its battery switching technology in Israel and Denmark in late 2011, is demonstrating the world’s first switchable battery electric taxi in Tokyo as well as its plans for San Francisco. For the Tokyo electric taxi project, Better Place and Nihon Kotsu, Tokyo’s largest taxi operator, are operating three switchable battery electric taxis.

These major cities are leading the trend towards low or no emission taxis by using environmental policies as its goal.

For further information: http://www.matternetwork.com/2010/11/san-francisco-see-electric-taxis.cfm or http://www.greencar.com/articles/electric-taxi-cabs-gaining-traction-multiple-continents.php

Article by Andy Soos, appearing courtesy ENN.

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Getting dozens of different plug-in vehicles to seamlessly connect and talk to dozens of various chargers is no easy feat. For several years now, a handful of national and global standards organizations, led by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), have been developing standards for plugs and vehicle charging equipment. Despite the herculean efforts of those involved, confusion exists about how to refer to the fastest rates for charging vehicles.

The agreed upon (as anointed by the SAE) standard charging rates are known as Level 1 and Level 2 and refer to alternating current (AC) charging equipment. (Equipment on the vehicle itself converts the AC to the DC used to actually charge the batteries). These slow- and medium-speed charge rates will be offered by nearly every piece of home or commercial charging equipment, from companies including Coulomb Technologies, Ecotality, Eaton, Better Place, AeroVironment, and others. These specific charge rates (1.44 kW and 6.7 kW respectively) will get most vehicles fully charged in as little as 2 to 5 hours.

But many of these companies anticipate demand for charging in under an hour for vehicles that are either being used for longer trips, don’t have a convenient place to charge at home, or for people who just don’t like to wait. Enter direct current (DC) charging, which can cut charge times by more than half. To input DC power into your vehicle, the car will have to be fitted with a special cable and connector. DC charging equipment is generally not permitted at most homes because of its huge consumption of power, as well as safety issues.

Since there has been no specific global standard passed for this type of charging, EV charging equipment companies have been developing products at a number of charging speeds and have been referring to it in multiple ways. These include rapid charging, fast charging, Level 3 (or Level II!) charging, or simply “DC charging.” In Japan, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has created a version of DC charging equipment that has gotten support internationally by a group that wants to base a “ChadeMo” standard on it. Here in the U.S., TEPCO is also gaining some support, while other SAE members are holding back on any endorsement and could develop an alternate Level 3 standard.

The use of the term “Level 3″ is contentious because Levels 1 and 2 are SAE standards and refer to AC charging equipment, and the SAE hasn’t weighed in on a Level 3 standard for AC charging, while Level 3 DC charging has only been loosely described by industry folks as fitting within a range of voltage and amperage combinations. For example, AeroVironment has DC charging equipment products for three different rates (30, 50 and 60 kW), and compatibility with the CHAdeMO protocol is an option.

No Level 1 or 2 standards have been drafted by the SAE for DC chargers.

Some engineers (many of who participate in standards groups) have been waging a battle lately to get charging equipment companies and the media to stop using the Level 3 terminology because there is no existing standard, and because companies that purchase equipment advertised as such today might believe that what they buy today would be compatible with other current or future DC charging equipment. I’ve had several conversations lately where this point was made loud and clear to me, yet at the PlugIn 2010 conference, several vendors continued to use Level 3 in their marketing materials and presentations.

I was hoping that by asking a panel of experts at a session on EV charging I’d get clarity, but got none. Mark Duvall of the Electric Power Research Institute said that work was still being done on a standard and would likely be done within a year. Gerry Kissel of GM, who had stated in his presentation that there was no Level 3 standard (see slide here, retreated when confronted on the subject, and said that it was nonetheless okay for industry folks to continue using Level 3. To make matters even more confusing, there’s debate going on whether a single plug can be developed for both AC and DC or charging, or if they should remain separate. So the “Level 3″ label seen today means proprietary DC charging hardware, and some kind of faster than medium speed, but gives no guarantee that it will make it possible to plug-in anywhere else.

And if you use those words together in conversation or online, you may get a strong rebuke, or no reaction at all.

Article by John Gartner, appearing courtesy Matter Network.

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Shai Agassi is not merely a prophet for the electric car industry. When the CEO and founder of Better Place describes the development of an ecosystem for the EV, he turns skeptics into believers.

Listening to Mr. Agassi speak in Santa Clara at an event sponsored by The Churchill Club, I was struck by his passion – his belief that we can create a sustainable revolution in automotive transportation if we only begin changing how we think. The foundation of Mr. Agassi’s vision for a better place is all about building infrastructure – it’s about making sure that as electric cars begin rolling off the assembly line en mass, they will be met by a network of available charge stations where drivers can plug in or simply switch a drained battery for a full one.

The Better Place system will also include a brilliant set of smart-grid networking features that will enable vehicles to provide data that can help utilities regulate regional energy demand; another suite of cool tools will allow drivers to access information to monitor and plan their own energy usage or download directions to the nearest switch station or charge spot.

Nearly as revolutionary as the plan for networked vehicles is Better Place’s business model, in which drivers pay for miles in the same way they currently pay for minutes on a cell phone.  However innovative, the appeal of the Better Place paradigm is that it appears to be a future within our grasp.  Mr. Agassi said that their technology enables them to build a charging station in a couple of days. He described the successful demonstrations the company has run in Israel, Denmark and Australia and the partnerships it is developing in China and Japan.  At home in its Palo Alto headquarters, Better Place has its sights set on California as the next testbed.

The Santa Clara discussion came, coincidentally, on the same day as a visit by President Obama to an advanced battery plant in Michigan where he touted the development of EVs.  After the meeting, I asked Mr. Agassi if he had talked about the potential for job development in discussions he has had with Washington. He mentioned the millions of software designers, systems engineers, parts manufacturers, and suppliers, charge station installers and personnel, as well as auto assembly line workers who would be hired in the transition to electric vehicles.

“I guess that’s a good definition of an ecosystem,” I said.

“President Obama indicated today that he would like to see 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015,” he replied.

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The San Francisco to Silicon Valley corridor made many a millionaire during the dot-com boom as companies wanted their mail to arrive at a place close to technical talent and potential investors. While much smaller in scale, the industry for electric vehicle charging technology is also being largely centered in the Bay Area for similar reasons.

Since their inception, Better Place (Palo Alto) and Coulomb Technologies (Campbell) have leveraged local product development talent that came of age during the ‘90s technology boom. EV charging stations use many of the same technologies that inflated the bubble, including telecommunications and IP networks. Company founders (such as Better Place’s Shai Agassi) could also tap into the many investors who in recent years have shifted from Internet tech to cleantech.

Charging equipment supplier ECOtality, which was founded in Phoenix as eTec, announced last week that it is moving its headquarters to downtown San Francisco, adding a third well-established company to Northern California. The company accurately stated that the Bay Area “is the nexus of the EV industry” as well as one of the largest market for EVs. Other EV-related companies in the Bay Area include automaker Tesla Motors and smart grid company Silver Spring Networks. EV charging equipment company Clipper Creek is about 2 hours away in Auburn, California. Automakers looking to partner with charging companies can now easily access the leading players within an hour’s drive.

ECOtality is leading the installations of more than 12,000 federally-funded EV charging stations across the country, including metropolitan areas in its former home in Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Tennessee and California. Despite local government commitment to EV charging infrastructure in San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco, the Bay Area was surprisingly omitted from the original DOE grant recipients last year , but earlier this month Coulomb Technologies received a grant to install charging equipment in nine areas including the Bay.

Along with the SF Bay Area, Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles are likely to see the highest penetration of EVs, and each region has its own crop of EV companies. EV charging equipment company Aerovironment and EV makers Coda Automotive and Aptera are all based in Southern California, while Portland is home to EV charging companies Optimization Technologies and Shorepower Technologies.

Not surprising, many of the utilities that have been the most supportive of EVs are located in these same areas, including Pacific Gas & Electric, Portland General Electric, and San Diego Gas & Electric.

These West Coast areas will see an inordinate percentage of the EVs delivered during the next two years, and will experience most of the lessons that will be learned in EV charging. This concentrated effort will provide valuable information before EVs are slowly rolled out throughout the rest of the country.

Article by John Gartner appearing courtesy Matter Network

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