The pioneer of electric vehicle battery charging, Better Place has replaced its charismatic CEO and founder, Shai Agassi.
The leader of Better Place’s Australian operation, Evan Thornley, is taking over at a critical juncture – the five-year-old company is struggling to get its electric vehicle network up and running.
So far, it’s got 24 charging stations in Israel and 12 in Denmark, giving just 750 drivers the ability to cross those small countries. It’s now concentrating on Australia, starting in Canberra, and has networks planned for Hawaii, Northern California, Ontario, Canada, Southern China and Japan.
Better Place has taken a unique approach to electric car charging – drivers simply swap their drained battery for a charged one, which takes about five minutes. All the other systems require drivers to wait while the battery re-charges, which averages a half hour.
While that approach sounds good, it’s also got big challenges. Car companies have to build in the ability to swap batteries, and only Renault has signed on so far, for its Fluence ZE sedan.
Car buyers save money on the expensive battery pack, which is about a third of the price of an electric car. Instead, they buy a subscription to Better Place’s swapping service for about $350 a month.
Better Place has raised more than $750 million, along with a recent $45 million loan.
The company didn’t give a reason for Agassi’s departure, but it could be the speed it’s burning through cash and the losses it’s accumulating. Since the beginning of 2010, Better Place has posted $477 million in losses – at its current rate of spending it will go through its $181 million in cash reserves in about 15 months, reports The New York Times.
Agassi will stay on as a board member and remains a major shareholder.
Agassi says, "The first flight after the Wright brothers took off in the air, for about 10 feet, wasn’t to the moon. What you do is slowly move up, gradually," in an NY Times interview.
But now Better Place has lots of competitors that don’t require car manufacturers to modify their designs, such as Coulomb Technologies with over 6,900 charging stations worldwide, ECOtality, and big players NRG Energy and General Electric,which also have several thousand locations worldwide.
Charging Infrastructure Moves Ahead
Mass adoption of electric vehicles (EV) is closely tied to charging infrastructure, which is why we’re even EV manufacturer Tesla Motors invest in installing them.
ECOTality reported this week that its Blink charger network – which includes chargers installed in homes as well as those that are publicly available – has now supported more than 1 million of charging "events." It is the first to reach this milestone.
ECOtality manages The EV Project, which is installing commercial and residential charging stations in the US, in 17 cities and major metropolitan areas in six states and the District of Columbia. Between private investment and public funds from the Recovery Act, the network is backed by $230 million.
Another encouraging development comes from ESB Networks, which is reporting progress on developing one of the biggest EV charging networks in Europe.
With 1,000 public charging points already available, the company has signed up IBM to help with rollout across Ireland. IBM is providing mobile payment and management technology that make the technology simpler to use.
There are now 45,000 charging stations around the world.
Growth of EV Charging Supply Chain
The past 18 months have marked the transition of the plug-in electric vehicle into full commercialization, and although sales haven’t been off the charts, over 135,000 vehicles will be sold globally in 2012, and growth is expected to continue at a steady pace.
Sales actually have been higher for plug-ins than they were when the first hybrids hit the market, and are expected to pick up with improving economies and as battery prices come down.
By 2013, there will be more than 80 models of plug-ins, and at at least as many models of charging equipment for residential and commercial customers, says Pike Research.
All this progress in EV charging infrastructure is creating an EV supply chain. Pike expects shipments of EV chargers for public stations to rise from 200,000 this year to 2.4 million units by 2020.
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