Start-Up Company Plans Electric-Car Network (San Francisco, Bay Area)

[KittyWampus]

Source: Wall Street Journal

SAN FRANCISCO -- Better Place, a start-up company developing technology to support electric cars, Thursday announced plans for a $1 billion network to charge electric cars in the San Francisco Bay Area as part of a broad push into the U.S.

The closely held Palo Alto, Calif., company, founded by former SAP AG executive Shai Agassi in 2007, already is building networks for electric cars in Israel and Denmark and in October announced plans to expand into Australia. The company said it would now move into the U.S. market, with construction of battery-recharging stations in the Bay Area starting in 2010.

The stations are critical because existing electric-car batteries go only about 40 miles on a single charge. Better Place also is promoting the idea of removable car batteries that could be swapped for charged ones at centers akin to service stations, sending drivers on their way without waiting to recharge.

Mr. Agassi, who predicts mass-market production of electric cars in the U.S. by 2012, said operations in the San Francisco area would serve as a precursor for deployment of electric-car networks across the U.S. The $1 billion cost of the initial network would be raised by an operating company Better Place plans to start in the Bay Area, he said.

snip

He added that the initial network would eventually have 250,000 small charging stations, about the size of parking meters, and 100 to 200 centers where motorists can switch batteries.

The announcement comes at a difficult time for alternative-energy companies as oil prices continue their slide. Tesla Motors Inc. in early October announced it was cutting staff and delaying the introduction of its second battery-powered vehicle, the Model S, until 2011.

But industry and government officials express confidence that demand for electric vehicles will soar over the long term. State and local officials at a news conference with Better Place announced an initiative to create public-private investments in electric vehicles and other elements of green infrastructure.

snip

Other backers of the concept include Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the late Sen. Kennedy and venture partner and senior adviser to VantagePoint Venture Partners, Better Place's lead investor. He estimated that the total cost to switch the U.S. over to renewable energy is about $1 trillion.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122721116741545211.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[robinlynne]

1. 1 trillion can switch the entire country over to renewables? That's nothing, really.

That is amazing. no more oil wars. POlar bears will might thrive again....
one trillion dollars. sounds worth it to me.

[empire we are]

2. Bullshit

Tens of millions of cars, each car with a few hundred pounds of batteries, batteries with nasty toxics...

Compressed air technology = better than batteries.

http://zeropollutionmotors.us/

[shadowknows69]

3. Every freaking reason in the world to move to San Francisco

Except y'all haven't solved that earthquake thing yet so you can't have me.

[davidinalameda]

4. you won't even notice them after a while

my cats aren't bothered by them

[KakistocracyHater]

5. Used to live there

average quake is around 3.0, wish I could move back there.

[Ian David]

7. More people die every year from weather-related causes in New England than during one large quake.

That includes things like car accidents on icy roads, homeless people freezing to death, heart attacks while shoveling driveways, etc.

I hope you're not going to ask me to google that.

But I'm pretty sure I'm remembering that correctly.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Charging stations are a potential MASSIVE industry waiting to happen

If in fact electric cars or perhaps intiially, smaller vehicles like scooters and motorcycles and the new electric bicycles, gain share. One of the biggest hold-ups on E85 is the lack of stations selling the fuel (and are mostly in the MW). If the nation (or world) comes up with a standard socket configuration (or uses a current one), then this is going to be needed nationwide, which would require infrastructure.

The downside is coming up with what would generate the electricity that would be used at the charging stations. Power plants/sources are going to be needed that get away from fossil fuels. I also agree with the poster mentioning the problem with the battery and its toxicity. The issue is not much different from the CF light bulbs and their disposal problems.

[formercia]

8. Light rail with electric bus feeder networks

is a better use of taxpayer dollars.

I'm betting that fuel cell technology will be the future.

[lunatica]

9. The SF Bay Area is connected with dozens of freeways

A bus system and Bart exists but it's not good enough to get people out of their cars. It takes me as long to get to the closest Bart station as it does to go to work. And I would still have to drive to get a bus, which would then take me to Bart which would take me to work. A light rail system wouldn't work any better than Bart does. The Bay Area is the perfect place to set up an electric grid and to have electric cars that go much further than 40 miles. We have a very long commute time here.