{"id":293759,"date":"2010-02-08T09:28:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T14:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27954921.post-5684249220985619255"},"modified":"2010-02-08T10:16:54","modified_gmt":"2010-02-08T15:16:54","slug":"better-place%e2%80%99s-electric-vehicles-land-in-israel-tnr-v-czx-v-wlc-v-rm-v-li-v-lmr-v-sqm-fmc-roc-tm-ttm-hev-aone-byddy-dai-bmw-nsany-f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/293759","title":{"rendered":"Better Place\u2019s electric vehicles land in Israel TNR.v, CZX.v, WLC.v, RM.v, LI.v, LMR.v, SQM, FMC, ROC, TM, TTM, HEV, AONE, BYDDY, DAI, BMW, NSANY, F"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We are always taking all advance with Better Place as a very positive sign on Electric Car promotion into the market place. We still have some reservations about commercial success of this project, but money are coming into this play and the more electric cars will they be able to put into market – the better it is for our Lithium and REE story<\/span><\/strong><\/a>. Better Place could happen to be not the best place for your money<\/span><\/a><\/strong> just because they would like to act as a mobile operator, selling you your miles to drive in Electric Cars. In the beginning some people will go for it, but all economics will be left for Better Place to profit (as they hope). With Lithium battery prices going down<\/span><\/strong><\/a> in the case of mass scale adoption of Electric Cars, Better Place will cut its own branch they are siting on – people will buy cars and charge them at home or in government sponsored outlets around major cities. They will not have to be constrained to Better Place Electric Cars model range and its “pay as you go plans”.<\/div>\n

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JPOST.com:<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Better Place\u2019s electric vehicles land in Israel <\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

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BY RON FRIEDMAN 08\/02\/2010 01:52
Cars can be test-driven at Pi Glilot visitors\u2019 center beginning next week.<\/p>\n

Better Place, the company that proposes to revolutionize the global auto market with its electrically powered car and grid system, opened a state-of-the-art visitor center near Tel Aviv on Sunday.In a press conference marking the occasion, the company\u2019s founder and CEO, Shai Agassi, said that in the future the company\u2019s logo will be as well known as the Macintosh apple or the Nike swish.Situated in a renovated oil tank at the Pi Glilot fuel depot north of Tel Aviv, the visitor center invites the public to hear about the Better Place vision, learn how the system will work, and test drive the electric cars.\u201cWith the Better Place project, for the first time, we in Israel are providing a solution for one of the biggest global problems,\u201d said Agassi. \u201cBy a happy coincidence, the Israeli government announced today that it was calling for a national plan to reduce Israel\u2019s dependence on fossil fuels. I promise you that we had nothing to do with it, but we are happy about it because it shows where we\u2019re going.\u201dAgassi said that Better Place would be the biggest international brand to come out of Israel since Jaffa oranges.Better Place Israel CEO Moshe Kaplinsky, a former deputy chief of the IDF General Staff, announced that the company had signed agreements with 92 Israeli companies that agreed to convert a portion of their fleets to electric vehicles once they become commercially available.Among the companies that signed with Better Place are Motorola, Strauss and Netvision.Also announced at the press conference was the signing of a strategic partnership agreement between Better Place and the Dor Alon gas station chain. Kaplinsky said Better Place\u2019s battery replacement centers would be based at Dor Alon gas stations, which are spread out across the country. \u201cThis is a first-of-its-kind agreement, and we expect that Dor Alon will be followed by other companies,\u201d he said.The center itself aims to enable prospective clients and members of the public to become acquainted with the company and its product. Its location in an old fuel tank is symbolic, said Dafna Agassi, the company\u2019s sales and marketing manager. \u201cIt shows our attitude about recycling and symbolizes the transition from the fossil fuel-based transportation of the past to the electric trend of the future,\u201d she said.While from the outside it looks like a big concrete drum, on the inside the visitor center is as futuristic as you can get. Dubbed by Agassi \u201cthe electric car Disneyland,\u201d the center includes a specially designed auditorium, an interactive information center and a short driving course, where people can try out the vehicles.Upon entering the center, guests are shown into a 30-seat auditorium. Every visitor is seated in a comfortable, couch-like chair that, it turns out, is made of a refurbished car seat. Each seat comes with a private screen.After being seated, the light goes out and a promotional video is projected on a wall-sized screen opposite the seats. The film talks about the problems inherent in the existing automobile market based on fossil fuels and the solution that Better Place seeks to offer.During the film, a hologram of Agassi explains the fine points. The private screens represent the dashboard of the cars, which allow users to access information about the battery and engine, navigate to the closest switching station and control the multimedia features of the vehicle.Though not in use on the journalists\u2019 preview tour, a revolving stage in the center of the auditorium hints that at a key moment of the film, an actual vehicle will be shown to the visitors.Following the screening, visitors are invited to test-drive a car. Guests are paired up with Better Place employees and given the key to the electric vehicle waiting outside.The cars themselves are modified Renault Lagunas and they were brought in from France, together with the French technicians, in time for the launch of the center. In the future the center will feature Renault\u2019s Fluence ZE models, the first mass-produced electric cars.The cars look like ordinary sedans and it is only when the visitor is asked to start the engine that the novelty becomes apparent. \u201cInsert the key, press on the brake pedal and push the button to start the car,\u201d said the instructor. \u201cThere, the car is running.\u201dThe only sound is that of the air conditioning unit switching on. Otherwise the car is silent. With electric cars, drivers will have to learn to rely on other senses to determine when the vehicle is operating.The acceleration feels just like a regular car\u2019s. On the 1.5-kilometer track, drivers can only accelerate to 80-90 kph. You can\u2019t get the impression of what it\u2019s like to drive at high speeds, but it definitely allows you to test the acceleration and deceleration of the car, and both are comfortable and smooth. On turns it also functions like a regular car and drivers can only just detect the vehicle\u2019s low center of gravity.Following the test drive, visitors once again enter the center and are ushered into a room that looks like the set of The Weakest Link TV show. Every guest gets a private touch-screen and an operator runs a program that presents the company\u2019s infrastructure. Visitors can input information on the screen and see where the closest charging point will be and where the battery-switching stations are located.So far Better Place has signed agreements with 17 local councils and municipalities to place charging posts. The company is assuming that there will always be an abundance of spots where car-owners can recharge their batteries.Agassi said that 2010 would be the year Better Place proves itself.\u201cWe are now putting together all the pieces of the puzzle,\u201d he said. In 2010 the charging grid will be tried out in Denmark and Israel and a practical trial on taxicabs in Tokyo will get under way.Agassi said the company was waiting for other car manufacturers to join in its project. \u201cWe are in ongoing negotiations with other manufacturers, but it takes a long time. The talks with Renault took a year, too. We will announce additional agreements when they take place,\u201d he said.The Israeli trial will begin in September with several hundred vehicles, he said. It will encompass five to 10 battery-switch stations and several thousand charging points across the country. After a six-month trial period the cars will be available to the public. By that time there should be around 100 switch stations and Agassi expects to deploy roughly 1,000 cars a month.
Agassi said the company was committed to providing a vehicle that would be cheaper than the equivalent gasoline-powered car. \u201cKeeping it running will cost the same or less than running a car on gasoline. I can\u2019t tell exactly because it depends on the price of fuel, which as you know fluctuates widely,\u201d he said. The company has yet to publish the proposed price of the electric vehicle.When asked whether there would be additional models of electric cars like minivans or sports cars, Agassi said that Renault was currently working on nine models of electric vehicles and that every market segment would be represented by an electric alternative. He also said that because of the international standards that Better Place follows, additional companies, assuming they choose to, would be able to use the Better Place grid for service and charging.The visitors\u2019 center will be open to the public starting on February 14. Groups of up to 25 people can schedule a tour and individual visitors can call ahead to book a tour and test drive.” <\/div>\n

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We are always taking all advance with Better Place as a very positive sign on Electric Car promotion into the market place. We still have some reservations about commercial success of this project, but money are coming into this play and the more electric cars will they be able to put into market – the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2835,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2835"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}