I think Agassi's program has merit in many settings and much less merit in others. In metropolitan and suburban areas where 80 minutes of driving is as much or more than you'd drive in an entire day, I think it works fine. The company owning the cars & batteries is an interesting switcharoo but hey it worked for the cell phone industry so why not? Solution to driving long distances (main problem cited above): rent a Volt. Maybe he can even incorporate cellulosic-powered ethanol Volts into his "usage plans" so that your car-plan would come with 2 weeks' worth of Volt-use time for longer trips.

If this scheme gets even 3% of the people driving ICE cars today to drive EVs instead for 95% of their driving, then I'd say it's an unqualified success. Anything to reduce dependence on oil and other fossil fuels. Agassi's pledge to purchase green electricity to "fuel" these vehicles is a wonderful move as well.

It may not be right for all but it certainly could work for many. I don't see it doing as well in the wide open spaces of Oklahoma as it will in the crowded suburbs surrounding major cities, and of course the cities themselves.

I agree that the battery-swap idea is inefficient and weak. On longer trips, where will these batteries be located? Every 20 miles? In West Virginia (no offense) c'mon. Will the stations be 24-hour? The last thing I want is to be battery-less at 2am coming home from far away. The service stations would have to be 24 hour. At night they would have to recharge via grid power anyways. Even solar cells on the roof of the recharge building (probably) couldn't supply a small battery-swap station with enough juice to recharge their fleet. I also shudder to think that I have to rely on my gps/car computer to locate a nearby station for me, too reliant on unreliable electronics.

THUS, the REAL solution to the problem emerges- Solar on every building. As much as this sounds pie in the sky as well (I admit), the grid must be distributed and self sustaining to be off oil forever. All buildings must have solar to collect solar power and power all buildings. Large big box stores would have lots of space for panels, offices and houses maybe not so much. Even if its not used for home heating or power, electric from solar could be used just for transportation

I also notice that Agassi's car does not have solar panels on top of it. If he was serious about getting cars off oil, put some solar on the roof, hood, or trunk. Most commuter cars sit outside during the day and could potentially recharge themselves to some extent during the day (OK not in parking garages I know). But 80% of America parks outside.

I could go on but I'm at work.

I mostly agree with her arguments against Project Better Place's business model. It might work in small isolated geographic areas like Hawaii where cars stay in a small area. For highway usage, we really don't see how and type of pure electric transport system will work. Plug in hybrids will be needed here for the gasoline engines.

Harshal Patel
www.energysniff.com

So is it your opinion that this idea has absolutely, positively no merit whatsoever? I am concerned about the objectivity of your response because you failed to mention any benefits whatsoever. When I first heard of this plan from Israel, I felt really great that someone was trying to address the issue. If we wait for the PERFECT solution, we will never make it.

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Karin's comment:

Not at all. I think the solution could and does have merit. I am trying to encourage a little criticism, because so far, all I've read in the media are positive and encouraging articles about Project Better Place. I think businesses, even and maybe especially those touting to be green, should not be immune to criticism. This is our job as "treehuggers" and hopefully some of these comments will be read by, and considered by the company.

Ummm...
Has either the reader or the post author read the Wired story or even understand Agassi's model?

If so they would realize that
3) The swapping frequency while on a trip (about every
 80 minutes) is needlessly inconvenient.

Isn't even correct.
The whol epoint is that first off they are trying this is very tiny countries where the majority of the driving public (even in the USA) travel less than 80 miles a day. (see GM's Volt plan)
Moreover, the battery would only have to be swapped out at all if, one couldn't stop at the time for a recharge...They are not one use batteries but reusable/rechargeable...

Maybe get the facts straight next time?

And sure this won't take care of all vehicular traffic or lubricants et al. But it is the beginings of a moevemnt away from oil. Plus it does have the added benefit of serving as a baseload storage system for countries that want to move towards larger renewable energy generation...
Again, not a panacea but at least one good begining.

Reaction to some of the points:

1) So what? Of course this system will not wipe out oil dependency by itself, and that dependency will not be wiped out in an instant.
The point is that it can be a significant first step.

2) The Renault car proposed has the same body (or very similar) to current Renault Meganne models. The most common European car size.

3) Don't know if that number is correct, but even 80 minutes is way more than the average commute in Israel, Denmark and other countries of that size. In fact, it is probably longer than the average commute in the US too.

I am not a scientist or an engineer - I'm a lowly history major. I don't claim to be an expert and you should probability take everything I say with a gain of salt. That being said, I still think Agassi could be on to something because:

1) A lot of shipping that is currently done by trucks could be replaced by electric rail, and I imagine electric motors require a heck of lot less lubricating oils than gasoline engines (fewer moving parts). And heating oil - how much heating oil does Israel use?

As for boats (and plastics)... you have a good point.

2) Its true that some people want or need big cars, but some don't. Smart Cars seem to be selling pretty well in California. And whats to stop them from offering bigger electric cars for people who need bigger cars?

3) this is Israel we are talking about. Israel is smaller than the State of New Jersey and most of its big cities are pretty close together - which means most Israelis aren't going be taking thousand-mile road trips. My point is that you wouldn't need as many extra battery packs as you seem to imply.

4) You are assuming plugin hybrids like the Chevy Volt will be successful, but they aren't even on the market yet so we don't really know whats going to happen. And since you mentioned the Chevy Volt by name - remember what GM did to the EV1? I hope it will be different this time around, but I'm still guessing that Toyota or Honda will bring us the first wave of viable plugins.

5) Unless your talking about Brazil, I'm not sure how low-carbon ethanol really is. And at any rate, I doubt Israel has the extra water to grow fuel crops. They're better off sticking to electricity.

6) Its true that the battery swapping stations would become obsolete When batteries become quickly rechargeable. But Agassi is planning recharging stations as well. With perhaps some minor modifications to the recharger, he will still have all the infrastructure he needs in place.

So maybe this business model won't be viable 100% of the time, but I don't see why it wouldn't work in small countries, for people who want a dedicated commuting car, or for people living on smallish Islands ( Indonesians, Hawaiians, and Japaneses...). And for the rest of us, there will (hopefully) be plug in hybrids and some sort of bio fuel.

Project Better Place also exists in Portugal.
As for the arguments made:

1.So it doesn't solve the problem of sustainable mobility in one shot, then what? Little actions count!
If a third of all transportation is "little"...

2.Tiny vehicles are selling very well everywhere (except USA) and are perfect for dense cities- where 80% of the world population will live\lives.
The PBP hasn't even announced its vehicle yet! But guess which car-size sells more in Denmark and Portugal (and Europe,and China, and India,and...)?

3.The specs haven't been released but the authonomy is well within the daily average (once again maybe not in the USA-which does not have PBP anyway). They have announced that a 80% charge will take 15 minutes- time for coffee and wc or you can change your battery for another instantly you know... like they say on their website.

4.In the early 90's you probably also said: "Those stupid portable phones are going nowhere!"

5. Cars compete against other cars... What about the huge infrastructure used for oil extraction, processing, transportation, refinement, distribution, etc, etc?

You could at least proof-read the pasted text. The formatting on this makes it very, very garbled.

Oh, god, not "Kerry Bradshaw". The penultimate EV troll. He goes around to almost every EV site under the sun and trolls the concept under a variety of aliases. Some EV sites have specific articles about him, wondering who the heck he is and what is driving him to do this. If it's not the Volt, he despises it.

That said, PBP is a lousy system that is basically forcing itself on the world through momentum and funding. Modern automotive li-ions can fast charge, so there's no need to force the ridiculously high standardization burden and overhead cost that is battery swapping. Oahu already has a network of fast chargers installed. Conductive charging is vastly superior to inductive charging, which PBP leans toward (cheaper chargers, higher power, less energy wasted, less heat buildup, easier to make adapters for conventional outlets, etc). And I'm sorry, but their battery rental/surcharge/subscription model is "EVs for Idiots" -- people who are too dumb to do the math to see that they'll save money in the long run by paying more upfront. Most people want to own their car, not "kinda sorta but not really own it". That's why most people buy, not lease. This sentiment is even stronger among EV fans who saw how leases burned those during the 90s CARB ZEV mandate era. If the car is too expensive upfront, then just extend the car loan and/or offer buyback guarantees; problem solved.

What you need for mass-market EVs that will largely replace conventional cars:
* Range = 2 to 2 1/2 hours driving at highway speeds (you're supposed to stop for a break once every 2 hours or so anyways)
* Charge time in less than 15 minutes
* Fast charge stations along the US's interstates.
* Monthly loan price + monthly electricity cost + depreciation

This is already perfectly doable today. PBP does not fit in to this picture. But they have the money and the name, so they're moving towards getting things done in their (awful) way.

The batteries being stored at recharge stations can be charged during non-peak hours, therefor utilizing power that isn't being tapped from say Nuclear power plants that don't shut down. The batteries can also be used to store access electricity produced by electric windmills on windy days. I like the idea of having a reservoir of batteries... Similar concept to a water tower. Also, battery tech is not advanced enough to recharge batteries within reasonable times at the current moment, you would need a capacitor to do that... and they don't have the storage capacity of batteries.

Hopefully when if this concept is realized in the United States we will be using Lithium Ion Polymer batteries with carbon cathodes... It's promising tech that increases battery capacity quite a few multiples. Not currently being manufactured as far as I know though.

As a communicator, I really admire the power of Better Place's model for tearing down the rhetrorical barriers that we see thrown up to prevent investment in a green economy. Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure. You hear it all the time; "the lag and investment necessary to get {insert clean energy project here} off the ground make it impossible to think about right now..."

There is real power in Better Place's pitch here. Who has not used a mobile phone or ATM this week? If people understand those technologies and their incredibley quick rise to ubiquity, they can better concieve of how electric cars could become a reality soon. From there, a wide array of clean energy offerings also get more concrete. We have to engage the public enough to understand that this stuff is not sci-fi. It is here if we just make the effort.

Will Better Place's model work? I don't know. But I am excited to see how it engages people in a way that lots of other important policy issues do not. Talking on a level that everyone can relate to is unfortunately not the norm on technology and energy issues these days. It will have to become the norm if we want to see clean energy become a reality quickly.

To Chris:
"Will the stations be 24-hour? The last thing I want is to be battery-less at 2am coming home from far away."

The battery swap stations will be fully automated, and thus 24 hour I believe.

But people seem to be fixed on the whole battery swap thing. Seriously, how often do you have to drive longer than 80 minutes? One thing I notice more and more is that Americans don't buy cars for the things they do most, but for the things they might, just maybe have to do some time in the distant future. IE, You don't need your F350 super duty, but in case you have to tow a yacht or haul around a camel some time in the next 3 years it might come in handy. My point is, for the average American city dweller (and we are by and large an urban country at this point) the smaller, lower range cars are more than adequate.

Additionally, battery technology is improving at an astounding rate. In the next 5-10 years, I wouldn't be surprised to see electric cars with ranges equal to those of dinosaur burners.