BETTER PLACE AND ELECTRIC DRIVING IN ISRAEL

Life in the EV Trenches—A Report From Better Place’s Launch in Israel; Courteous customer service makes the Better Place experience work—in Israel, no less.

Noam Gressel, June 25, 2012 (Greentech Media)

“…The [Renault] Fluence ZE is currently the only model adapted for Better Place’s rather unique switchable battery system…While the virtues of an electric engine are quite clear, it is also clear that everything else around the engine seems to limit its widespread adoption: from battery weight to charging time, mobile electric power seems to be weighed down by barriers preventing it from taking center stage in the global transport arena. This is where Better Place’s massive launch in Israel is rather instructive…Wikipedia will be editing its “range anxiety” listing, mentioning it was a hoax…[H]ow much of a burden is the electric vehicle’s 80 to 90 miles per charge range? …[T]he burden of plugging in the car…[takes] less than 7 seconds with one hand…

“…[O]nce or twice a week, when range extension is necessary…[there is a battery switching station]…[R]ange anxiety simply dissipates with the morning smog…Switching stations are the new-age car wash…[At the approach [of] the gate, the station identifies the car remotely, invites [it] in using both the onboard display and external monitors…[The driver stays in the car, the system asks for the engine to be turned off and put in neutral], then leads along a conveyer through the car wash experience…”

“The most game-changing technology Better Place introduced is its customer focus…It’s a total experience…sessions with professional driving instructors to help you overcome the notorious range anxiety hoax. Switching station attendees…explaining the new-age [battery switching] process…[phone] information…[on the] hours of a public charging spot or…[functions of] the onboard computer display…

“…The Better Place system took away much of the pricing barrier plaguing EVs by creating a model where the vehicle is purchased upfront but its energy -- the battery, much like its gasoline predecessor, is provided month-by-month by a service provider (Better Place, in our case)…[T]he cost of the mileage-based packages are about 25 percent to 30 percent less than the cost of the gasoline used for the same mileage driven on an equivalent gasoline vehicle. What’s better: it has fixed it independent of OPEC oil quotas, Chinese growth rates, American fuel consumption or Iranian nuclear policies…”

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