A municipal council in Denmark has rejected Better Place’s blue and gray electric vehicle chargers!
If powered renewably, Better Place electric vehicles can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions (unless you listen to Dan Rabinowitz). This potential transition to cleaner vehicles notwithstanding, one Danish municipal council has vetoed Better Place chargers because of their color. Frederiksberg Council claims that the chargers which accompany any new Better Place electric vehicle are not suitable for street installation because they are blue and gray, and not green.
Jan E. Jørgensen, chairman of Frederiksberg’s technical and environment committee, told Urban newspaper that it is Better Place’s responsibility to ensure that their chargers fit Frederiksberg’s rule that dictates that all outdoor equipment must be green.
Better Place believes this mandate is absurd. Since the electric vehicle chargers are mass-produced for an international audience, it is unreasonable to expect the company to produce a different color for every country (or municipality) within which it operates.
“Putting the colour of a charging station over a clean city environment, with less noise and particle pollution, is beyond me,” Claus Melvej from Better Place told The Copenhagen Post. He added that the council’s veto jeopardizes the transition to more sustainable forms of transportation.
Better Place chose Denmark as a testing ground for its EV systems and hopes to install another 19 stations in the upcoming year. That seems feasible enough, except, apparently, in Frederiksberg.
The Better Place EV saga continues:
Better Place Reveals its Danish Car Prices
Better Place Unveils its Mammoth Charging Plan
Journalist Accuses Better Place of Contempt of Israeli Consumers
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
…or maybe there is the issue of the boycott that sometimes is for all of Israel and not just the occupied territories…
I would take Frederiksberg to the Court of Equipment Rights and sue them for colour discrimination