Getting the World Off Gas and On Electric Vehicles

Parents are cute. They typically talk about “life before the cell phone” and how they did so many marvelous outdoorsy things when they “were my age” instead of watching Lost or surfing Urban Outfitters.com.

My dad’s a little bit different. A bit on the eccentric side and likes to blurt out theories of the future vs talking about his past. About 8 years ago, I remember my dad swearing that he would never buy a hybrid. He angrily went on and on about how hybrids are silly “transition-mobiles” and they’ll completely die out in the next few years when fully electric cars flood the market.

So it seems for every 1000 strikes, my dad will get a hit or two and then sometimes score a homerun. Not sure if this will be the former or the latter, but this article regarding electronic vehicles I read last month really makes me believe my dad is onto something.

If you haven’t yet heard, a young man named Shai Agassi has a huge dream to bring electronic vehicles to the masses and get the entire world off gasoline. Yes, get the entire world to stop using gas for their vehicles. He has already convinced two countries to let him produce and construct a crazy infrastructure of charging stations throughout the land that will “fuel” all the electronic vehicles (EVs). 17 EV charging stations in Tel Aviv, Israel, have opened so far and Agassi’s goal is to have 150,000 places to plug in throughout the country by 2011. Wow!

Now here for some even weirder, more interesting news. His company, called Better Place, just unveiled a battery swap system. This system, or gadget, replaces a dead battery in a matter of seconds and gets you back on the road quicker than the time it takes to fill your gas tank.

As you’ll see in the video below (with the super cute car from Yokohama, Japan), you pretty much drive your vehicle into a drive-through car wash type system and the battery swap is made underneath the car by robotic trays or “shuttles”. According to Agassi, this technology will make it possible for a person to travel longer distances in an EV without having to stop at multiple charging stations.

Agassi is tackling the main problem many people have with electronic vehicles: where to charge the vehicle.

Therefore, this issue is being attacked on two sides: 1) by building multiple charging stations throughout the country and 2) establishing a network of battery swap stations.

The naysayers mention that this technology has multiple flaws including the consumer’s hesitancy to constantly swap out their car batteries which is equivalent to asking the consumer to replace the engine when the car runs out of gas. Furthermore, the numerous swapping of the battery can damage its protective seal. It is also said that this process requires the standardization of batteries: a move the automakers are not likely to embrace.

Better Place mentions these concerns are minimal compared to the “coalition you need to make it happen.” The company believes that the problematic issues are not about the batteries or cars themselves and concedes that bringing together all the moving parts and components proves to be the real challenge in this gigantic project. He hopes to replicate this system in Denmark, Australia, California, Hawaii and other locations. I hope LA is at the top of this list!

Will you be willing to use Agassi’s system? Share with us your thoughts!

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