Interchangeable Battery Electric Car Demonstrated

May 15, 2009

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Better Place, a California company, is testing the process for extending the mileage of electric cars by swapping out batteries at strategically placed stations.

At a demonstration in Yokohama, Japan, using a Nissan electric vehicle, the company demonstrated the technology, in which customers would subscribe to a service based on their estimated driving needs. Individual charging stations, not consumers, would own the batteries.

Markets targeted for the service include the United States, Israel, Denmark, Canada and Japan, according to Reuters.

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Reader Comments

Better Place is mostly a crappy con job. It will make electrics even more expensive and be obsolete within two years, as soon as the new fast recharging li ion batteries are on the marekt. Better Place always depended upon several scenarios : high gas prices, a public brainwashed into believing that carbon reduction will have some effect, and impractical, slow recharging batteries. All three asumptions are now seen as very shaky, and a fast recharging battery is on the horizon. I wonder if the countries that have welcomed Better Place (for a variety of reasons – Israel because of oil depdendencies, Denmark because of its fiasco with windmills, which has cost them untold billions) really know what’s going on in EV technology? If they are still willing to allow the sleazy Better Place investors rape their citizens,
I’d say not.

kerry bradshaw | May 15th, 2009

Kerry, do you have any links regarding these fast-charging Li ion batteries? Exactly how quickly do they charge?

It does seem a little odd for Better Place to be going with a cell-phone type contract/subscription model. The advantage to me in what they are doing should be precisely the ability to mimic the gas station experience: pay a certain price per watt-hour and a little swapping charge, and be on your way in a few minutes. And how do they come up with individual charging stations owning the batteries? Do they serial-number each battery pack and network the stations such that one station is selling it to another with the driver effectively doing the “shipping”? Is there some patent they are trying to protect with this ownership model? What if a battery is damaged in the field, who pays for its repair?

Avery Ray Colter | May 18th, 2009

The Canadian city of Ontario??? Reuters, you should be ashamed…Ontario is a province in Canada. Toronto, Ottawa, just 2 of the many major cities in Ontario…

Iain | May 24th, 2009