EV: ONE THING ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS AGREE ON

Reports are that gasoline has climbed to as high as $50/gallon in Gaza.

The potentially autonomous region is under economic sanctions and blockade by Israel. Everything but hostility (on both sides of the blockade) is in short supply.

$50/gallon gasoline will drive people to extremes but some have instincts that turn them toward the kind of extremism that makes sense. Waseem Khazendar and Fayaz Anan went to the extreme of converting a car with an internal combustion engine into an electric vehicle.

Waseem Khazendar: “The people here cannot afford that kind of money, especially now…We are trying to help everyone here get through a difficult period.”

Gaza may be going through a difficult period but it appears that times just got a whole lot better for Khazendar and Anan. They have a 400-name waiting list for their $2,500 conversion (far cheaper than a comparable U.S. conversion). And the cost could drop to $1,700 if the June 20 truce holds and the blockade is lifted.

With hopes of turning EV conversions into a big business, Khazendar and Anan did what any smart, aspiring entrepreneur would do: They hired a lawyer. An Israeli lawyer. (There is an ethnic joke/slur here. It will be sacrificed. )

Anan: “Why not? It’s no problem for me and my partners. It is business, it is not policy. Policy is one thing and business is something else.”

Israelis, too, are becoming failure with the subject of electric cars. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Shai Agassi just got final approval on Israeli government incentives for Project Better Place (PBP), his potentially game-changing, hundred million dollar electric car concept. (See PROJECT BETTER PLACE DEBUTS ELECTRIC CAR PROTOTYPE IN JERUSALEM) PBP will build EV battery-charging and battery-changing stations around the country and sell EVs with leased batteries that can be charged while parked or switched out in a gas-station-style quick stop.

Small regions are the best places to prove EVs because they aren’t as likely to challenge the batteries’ distance limits. Drivers in Israel and Palestine don’t tend to drive long distances and don’t drive across borders more than it is necessary.

Is it a good sign there is EV enthusiasm among both Israelis and Palestinians? Or will it be another area of contention?

Ziva Patir, standardization and compliance, PBP: “I believe that business creates peace, and any peace project is good for everybody.”

Anan: “Maybe we, Israelis and Palestinians, can save the world together.”

The new EV conversion in Gaza. (click to enlarge)

In Gaza, electric cars offer a way around Israel’s blockade; Palestinian engineers say it only costs $1.50 per fill-up. Israel is also going electric with hundreds of charging stations to be installed nationwide.
Rafael D. Frankel, July 10, 2008 (Christian Science Monitor)

WHO
Waseem Khazendar and Fayaz Anan, collaborating electrical engineers, EV retrofit; Project Beter Place (PBP) (Shai Aggasi, founder/CEO; Ziva Patir, standardization and compliance)

WHAT
Khazendar and Anan collaborated to retrofit a Peugeot from internal combustion to electric power.

Project Better Place: How It Works

WHEN
- The retrofit was done on a 1994 Peugeot 205.
- June 20: A truce and cease-fire began between Hamas-run Gaza and Israel.
- 2008: Hundreds of PBP charging stations in operation in Israel.
- 2015: Half a million PBP charging stations in operation in Israel.

WHERE
- Gaza is a 25-mile-long, 7.5-mile-wide area along the central Israel/Palestine Mediterannean coast.
- PBP will move to Denmark when it is operating in Israel.
- The City of San Francisco, CA, seems to be pursuing the opportunity to be PBP’s 1st U.S. location.

WHY
- The retrofitted Peugeot uses 34 standard lead-acid batteries. It does 110 miles/charge. The builders estimate the cost for the charge is $1.50.
- The retrofitted Peugeot generates 15 horsepower and gets up to 60 mph.
- The cost of a conversion is presently $2,500. If the cease-fire endures and the economic blockade is lifted, the cost is expected to drop to $1,700.
- PBP cars will be bilt by Renault. Its lithium-ion batteries will be built by Nissan.

Add another item to the list: Could be the basis for an Israeli-Palestinian peace. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Fayaz Anan: “In Gaza [a 25-mile-long, 7.5-mile-wide strip], it is very sufficient…”
Ron Gremban, lead engineer, CalCars.org: “With the cheapest components I can imagine, it would cost around three times as much over here…”
- Ziva Patir, standardization and compliance, PBP: “This is the biggest-ever trial that will be done in clean technology. We believe that cars running on oil will be in museums within 20 years…”