Better Place Set To Unveil EV Battery Exchange Station in Japan
By John O'Dell May 12, 2009
YOKOHAMA, Japan - We're in Japan for a few days this week to take a look at the city's electric vehicle test project, more specifically to witness the first demonstration of the battery exchange technology that Better Place founder Shai Agassi has been talking about for more than a year now.
Better Place, the Silicon Valley-based company that wants to lead the way into vehicle electrification by providing a global network of battery charging and exchange systems (working country by country, not all at once) is part of a consortium working with officials in Yokohama to establish a real-world center for assessing EV operation.
Mitsubishi Motors and Subaru are providing the cars, Tokyo Electric Power is supplying the juice, and Better Place is providing the means for getting it into the cars.
A temporary exhibit aimed at educating Japan's decision-makers, auto industry leaders and common citizens about electric cars, car charging and other issues is being inaugurated later today and a Better Place battery station will be part of it.
The company's buisness plan envisions some EV owners using on-street charging stations to "top up" the vehicles' batteries for a little extra range during the day when making short trips but exchanging entire depleted battery packs for fresh new ones in automated "battery swap" centers - think of them as full-service gas stations for EVs - when trips are longer and a single charged pack won't do.
Better Place intends to sell prepaid charging and battery swap plans, much the way cell phone companies sell minutes of air time in a variety of packages.
In addition to seeing how it works, we'll be asking Agassi how he plans to field the technology - which depends on a uniform battery mounting system - in markets like the U.S. where fiercdely competitive automakers rarely agree on anything,
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
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