U.S. Entrepreneur Key to New Electric Car Program: Renault, Nissan To Launch Cars in Israel
By John O'Dell January 18, 2008
An electric car and battery exchange program that's been in the works for months appears to be ready to launch. Renault and Nissan Motor Co. are expected to announce Monday a joint venture to build and test electric cars, using Israel as the first test site and a California entrepreneur's vision for a battery exchange network as the catalyst to make it all work.
The automakers, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, are teaming with California entrepreneur Shai Agassi (right), who last year began a venture aimed at establishing a global network of battery charging and replacement centers to facilitate electric car use.
Edmunds.com first reported on Agassi's talks with Israel almost two months ago.
In a recent interview with Green Car Advisor, Agassi said his "Project Better Place" would solve the nagging problem of how to keep electric vehicles running after the initial battery charge is depleted – how to make them cars that can be used every day by all kinds of drivers, for long trips as well as short commutes.
The system envisioned by Agassi – former product division president at business software giant SAP -- works much like a conventional fueling system in which people buy cars from automakers and get their gasoline or diesel fuel as they need it from filling stations affiliated with various energy companies. In Agassi's scheme, his regional companies would be the energy providers, operating "filling stations" that would provide charging outlets and, for vehicles designed to do battery swaps, packs of pre-charged batteries that could be switched with depleted packs by a robotic battery exchange device.
Agassi said Project Better Place – a reference to making the world the same – would rent charged battery packs to electric car owners at a monthly cost that would be "less than the cost of gasoline" for the same vehicles.
"We're looking at this from a consumer perspective, not a car company or battery-maker perspective," Agassi said. "The battery isn't part of the car, it's part of the infrastructure."
Purchasers of conventional cars and trucks don't buy all of their fuel for the next 10 year up front, he said. "You subscribe to energy on a mile-by-mile basis, and buy 300 or 400 miles at a time" at the local gas station.
"You should be able to do that with electricity, too, and you could even buy your batteries on a long-term contract to protect against future price hikes. The gas companies can't make you that offer."
Agassi said he launched his endeavor -- which has attracted some $200 million in venture capital investment -- to help solve "two big problems that we have: our addiction to oil, which is getting worse as oil is getting harder to find, and the local effects of pollution from car emissions and their global impact on climate."
When he spoke to us in late November, Agassi described his company as "early in the start-up stages" but said he already was "in serious discussions with a number of large automakers."
Still needed to make things work, he said, "is the right policy from a country or region" that wanted to promote electric vehicles.
Israel, apparently, is the first country to sign on.
The Wall Street Journal article, quoting unnamed sources, says the Israeli government will help subsidize Agassi's battery charging and replacement stations.
Renault and Nissan, which have overlapping ownership and are run by charismatic auto industry executive Carlos Ghosn, are planning cars that would use lightweight lithium ion batteries good for about 100 miles of travel between charges.
The interest by two international automakers in pursuing electric cars and battery development should add impetus to growing effiorts by a variety of companies, from start-ups to giants such as General Motors Corp., to revive electric transportation in the face of rising oil prices and shrinking supplies.
Ghosn, who serves as chief executive of both Renault and Nissan, declined to talk to the Journal about Monday's announcement, but people affiliated with Project Better Place told Green Car Advisor that photography -- apparently of the battery exchange system Agassi is developing for the project -- would be available Monday.
In his interview with the Journal, Ghosn confirmed that the two car companies are working on batteries and electric cars and have explored the idea of testing electric cars in highly congested cities.
"We have cities that are asking for this," he said, noting that London now imposes tolls on vehicles entering the city's crowded center.
Ghosn also told the newspaper that the automakers are "near a mass-market solution" in development of lithium ion batteries.
The battery packs would not have to have the range demanded by consumers in the U.S. because Israel is a much smaller country with shorter distances between major destinations.
Renault and Nissan also want to sell their electric cars in Europe, principally for use in congested cities and not for long distance travel.
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