RIP Better Place
Posted by Big Gav in better place, electric vehicles, tesla
While I'm conducting funeral services, I've been lax in noting the demise of electric car company Better Place, which has gone out of business - Better Place's Failure Is Blow to Renault. Tesla motors appears to be adopting some of their business model - Building an EV Ecosystem: Why Tesla Will Likely Succeed Where Better Place Failed.
The financial collapse of electric-car venture Better Place Ltd., which filed for liquidation over the weekend, is a blow for French automotive group Renault SA, RNO.FR +2.37% which helped the Israeli company develop its novel battery-switching system for electric cars.Founded by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi in 2007, Better Place developed a system where electric-car owners could drive their vehicles into a network of stations around Israel ILCO.TV +0.05% and replace the car's battery with a new one in about the same amount of time it takes to fill a gasoline tank on a regular car.
The "quick drop" system was supposed to remove one of the main obstacles to the adoption of electric vehicles, namely the several hours it takes to recharge a flat battery.
Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn had championed Better Place's technology as one of the pillars of the French auto maker's ambitious €4 billion ($5.17 billion) electric-vehicle strategy. The first cars equipped with Better Place technology were Renault Fluence Z.E. sedans.