ACHIM, GERMANY ? An Israeli entrepreneur has begun rolling out the world?s first nationwide electric car network, PetrolPlaza.com reports.
After spending $400 million in infrastructure, network developer Shai Agassi said there are currently four stations where cars can get recharged, with more in the works.
Agassi?s concept, Better Place, offers an alternative to the traditional fixed battery charging station, allowing drivers to exchange depleted batteries for fully charged ones, receiving a full, 100-mile range battery within minutes. Better Place owns the batteries, which lowers the purchase price of the cars using the network. Drivers can also fully recharge their batteries at home, which takes up to eight hours.
Agassi is ready to prove a skeptical audience wrong. "We're driving a car that most people said would be a fantasy," he said.
Around 40 stations could be operating in Israel by the second half of this year. Until then, the Better Place stations are strategically spaced to allow a motorist to make the entire 300-mile drive from Israel?s northern tip to its southern end on one fully charged battery.
Renault has begun selling the Fluence, which uses the stations, and costs roughly $32,000. Currently, about 140 of the sedans are on the road, mostly owned by Better Place employees. They will be made available to the public within the next few weeks.
Renault?s Israel sales director Zohar Bali predicts up to 5,000 Fluences will be running on Israeli roads and highways within a year. With 80% of the population living in a densely populated stretch, it provides a perfect laboratory for the charging network.
Better Place is expected to expand to Denmark later this year, followed by Australia. Small-scale projects are also in place for Hawaii and California.
By 2017, Agassi predicts that 50% of all new car sales in Israel will be electric.
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