Israel’s Big Plan for Electric Cars by 2011
Israel plans to go electric by 2011. For the first time in history, we’ll see recharging stations and battery-exchange points to make electric cars practical on a mass scale. TIME magazine calls Israel’s new plan “far more sophisticated than anything that precedes it.” Now all we need are the matching futuristic jumpsuits.
From Time:
The Israeli government announced a major initiative to push the nation’s drivers toward electric cars on Monday, a move meant to both lessen dependence on foreign oil and address the environmental and health hazards of gas-burning vehicles.
It is not the first time a government has tried to promote electric cars on a mass scale. A 1990 California mandate requiring automakers to sell zero-emissions vehicles famously flopped. But the Israeli attempt is far more sophisticated than anything that precedes it. It aligns policy makers and a major car company with an outfit prepared to build hundreds of thousands of electric charging stations across the country. In an interview with TIME, Israeli President Shimon Peres called the project, “an experimental lab, a pilot project, before it’s applied to other, bigger industrialized nations.”
Automaker Renault-Nissan will manufacture the cars and Better Place, a California start-up founded by former SAP executive Shai Agassi, will build the infrastructure, which may eventually consist of 500,000 charging points and up to 200 battery-exchange stations. A pilot involving a few dozen cars will start later this year in Tel Aviv. A few hundred vehicles are expected to be on the road by 2009, with production scaled to the mass market by 2011. On Jan. 13, Israel slashed the tax rate on cars powered by electricity to 10% in order to encourage consumers to buy the vehicles once they are available.
Watch a video from JerusalemOnline about Israel entrepreneur Shai Agasi and his electric car revolution.
9 comments:
Great car to buy. Daewoo Matiz/Cherry QQ with electric motor? I wonder how much that car will cost when the sales will began?
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Sounds really cool! How far would you be able to travel on one “charge”? Can you use a spare battery or something in emergency situations?
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Electric cars have a big role to play in reducing the world's greenhouse gas emissions, but it's going to cost a lot. Israel slashed the tax rate on cars powered by electricity to 10% in order to encourage consumers to buy the vehicles once they are available.
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O wow, it was great cars how far would you be able to travel on one “charge”? Can you use a spare battery or something in emergency situations?
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O wow its a good news for israel people. Electric cars have a big role to play in reducing the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, but it’s going to cost a lot. Best of luck
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That car will put isreal on the world business map… when is it going to be released? and to what price, interesting to follow!
Jake
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I think we are going to see more cars like this, it just costs so much to put the infrastructure inplace for the charging facilities.
Whats the charge time on the batteries? Do you have to camp out at the refill station?
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asaf Reply:
March 29th, 2010 at 10:25 am
According to the company model, you will buy a “charge card” that will have you drop off the battery and take a full one.
For that they developed a super cool automated changing machine.
At home, you’ll be able to plug your car to the outlet and charge it or just fill up a t a garage that offers charging services.
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There is so much talk about Electric Cars. Not much talk about what to do with the Batteries when they die and how much it will cost to replace them. One great thing about this push is that they are planning the infrastructure to support the cars. I believe people would embrace Electric more if the ranger were longer and/or they could figure out a way for their to be charging stations in parking lots while customers shopped. The fear of being abandoned with a dead battery is a big killer to sales. Have you seen the Rasor Technology http://www.rasertech.com/media/videos/the-electric-h3 it seems to hold a lot of promise. A lot of hype when it first came out but it’s died down since then.
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