Better Place test drive in Australia

The past week has been hotting up for the conversation around electric vehicles. Much debate is going on regarding the Obama administration’s push to electrify their transport manufacturing process and get into the electric car battery game. Here’s an example from the Washington Post last week “Obama pours energy into electric-car batteries, but will it jump-start industry?“.

Meanwhile, the California-based Better Place electric car company has picked Australia to test their technology before rolling out in the US according to the article in The Australian last week entitled “Australia the testbed for electric car push into US.“

The firm will have charge points and battery-swapping stations in Israel by the end of this year, with Denmark and Australia by the end of next year.
“Australia is a proof of concept for North America,” Better Place Australia chief executive Evan Thornley said yesterday.
“Australia is continental size and it has a federal structure, so part of our role is to prove the network can scale.”
Mr Thornley, founder of the Nasdaq-listed search engine company LookSmart and a former Victorian MP, said the Australian launch would start with Canberra and southern NSW by the end of next year, and then expand nationally. The US states of Hawaii and California would follow soon afterwards.

And the roll out model? Similar to subsidised mobile phone handset plans, the company will cover the cost of the battery (the most expensive component in an electric car) and install a charger in the customer’s home for convenience (charging can take upwards of an hour). The driver then pays a monthly subscription to recharge and replace batteries (on long trip of 160km or more, the system has been designed so that you can stop at a battery-swapping station, similar to a petrol station, to exchange the depleted battery for a pre-charged one). Motorists who expect to drive a lot are able to sign up for unlimited use.

Mr Thornley said the distances in Australia were not a problem. “We will electrify the Hume Highway, but the vast majority of driving in this country is in the outer suburbs of the major cities. This is liberating working families from the tyranny of petrol prices.”

Strong words, however, Mr Thornley goes on to lay out the facts to back up his statement:

By the time the national network was complete in 2013, Better Place should offer full coverage for 80 per cent of Australian motorists, Mr Thornley said. Australians paid $25 billion a year for petrol, and oil prices would rise in the coming decade while electric car battery prices would drop.
On the environment, the car would emit zero emissions because Better Place was committed to getting all its Australian electricity from renewable sources.

Visit the Better Place website for more info.

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