"Better Place" to Set Up $1 Billion Electric Car Network in Australia

Better Place, which has already established electric car programs in Israel and Denmark, has chosen Australia as its prototype for rolling out electric vehicle infrastructure in large countries. The project, will require $1 billion in funding, which will be raised by Macquarie Capital Group.

A Palo Alto Silicon Valley startup company, Better Place was founded by Israeli American Shai Agassi, former president of the product & technology group and executive board member of German business software giant SAP.

At the beginning of the year, with the blessing of the Israeli Government, a joint venture was announced with car makers Nissan and Renault to build an electric car infrastructure throughout Israel using a business model similar to the way the mobile phone industry works.

Under the Israeli joint venture arrangement, car makers Nissan and Renault are supplying the electric cars. Better Place supplies Lithium Ion batteries and is building a ubiquitous electric car infrastructure throughout Israel, including 500,000 parking-meter-like charging points on Israeli streets and service stations where spent battery packs will be replaced with freshly charged packs within minutes.

The battery packs provided by Better Place, which are claimed to have a range of about 200km, will not be owned by subscribers to the scheme but will be part of the service infrastructure where users pay for the number of kilometers driven. Users who charge batteries from their home will be given a credit for the kilometers they put back into batteries, not unlike the way electricity users with solar panels are given credit when they supply energy to the grid.

In late March, it was announced that Denmark had put up its hand to become the second testbed for Better Place. The Danish Oil and Natural Gas company, known as ‘DONG Energy’, is partnering with Better Place to create a new venture called Better Place Denmark.