Comments on: Think of Better Place Electric Vehicle as Personal Bus, Not Car

By: Dan Marriott

Dan Marriott — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 19:10:15 +0000

In reply to jerru996.

Jerru,
This evening (PST), Tesla will be demoing their Model S battery pack swap technology. Let’s see what they’ve come up with. Maybe they will split off the battery from the car…
Here’s the link to tonight’s demo: http://t.co/3YJuE1kysW (We’ll probably see it tomorrow)

By: jerru996

jerru996 — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 18:58:45 +0000

Now, if Tesla could separate the battery from the car, it could reduce the sticker price by $12,000 and sell “electric miles” like Better Place. It might even spin off a “Tesla Transport Support” service to supply batteries, charging, and swapping services to car owners.

By: Dan Marriott

Dan Marriott — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 18:20:34 +0000

I am similarly very disappointed that Better Place was not successful.
However, I believe they were stymied by going with a traditional auto-maker who attempted to re-engineer a traditional oil-burning car into an electric car (and stealing most of the valuable trunk space for the battery).
This past week, I had the pleasure of test-driving the Tesla Model-S, a stunning automotive achievement and in my opinion, heralding the arrival of a real EV alternative, with much, much reduced range-anxiety.
In addition to voluminous trunk space (back AND front!), it has up to a 300 mile range, can recharge to half-capacity in 30mins, and tonight, Tesla are demonstrating Battery Swap for this vehicle! What form the battery swap will take – I’m not sure yet, but it sounds promising.
Tesla just raised their 2013 production target from 20,000 units to 21,000.
Impressive.

By: Karin Kloosterman

Karin Kloosterman — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:45:33 +0000

In reply to Etai. Nope. I was covering the Better Place news since day one.

By: Etai

Etai — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:33:57 +0000

In reply to Karin Kloosterman. Ha! I thought I was the only one who noticed the dissonance between Shai's original presentation of the idea and the actual pricing...

By: Karin Kloosterman

Karin Kloosterman — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:22:08 +0000

In reply to Etai. I agree. When the company first launched its vision Shai was selling the promise that they would cost less, much less, and that users basically would pay for miles driven, not the car itself. He sold the current cell phone model: sign up for a plan, talk as much as you want, pay for the minutes, but get the device for free. That was exciting. To ask the public to take on a financial risk with the company: idiotic.

By: Etai

Etai — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 05:04:45 +0000

I agree with the bus observation.
There are other problems with this car also, first and foremost, the fear that betterplace will not live to see another day, and you’ll be stuck with a personal petunia.

As a person who anxiously waited for the car to be become available to the public, can generally afford it, but ended up not buying it, I can tell you why Israelis (at least one of them) didn’t buy this car: company greed.

The car is great, the vision was grand, and the execution was impressive. They ended up with a really nice piece of machinery. However, the major problem was that betterplace wanted their prospective customers to take all the risks with them, while paying the full price of a normal sedane. For the same price as you might pay for a Gasoline operated Renault Fluence, you will get a “personal bus” that may or may not work reliably (no history to rely on), that you may or may not be able to sell as a second hand vehicle later on (I admit I didn’t even foresee bankruptcy as an option this early in the game. What they did to their customers is outrageous). For the normal middle-class person, this is a risk that is irresponsible to take around the family car, while paying a full price for it.

At the end of the day, this is why most people didn’t take the risk and buy this car. Unfortunately, it is also the reason why not very many cars were sold, and the company went bankrupt. Greed is a powerful thing.

By: When an Electric Vehicle Is More like a Personal Bus, Than a Car | Fisker Karma Blog

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:27:53 +0000

[…] a guest post today on Green Prophet, a Middle East green website, Blum […]

By: Jerry Yurow

Jerry Yurow — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:58:34 +0000

Other features of the Better Place solution that do not much press are: 1) the possibility of battery switching for flat format batteries as well as the Fluence ZE vertical format batteries, by altering the robotics software parameters and 2) the possibility of replacing a battery with a new, improved one as these become available. The latter, I liken to one of those intravenous medical devices that is is worn by some hospital patients and enables the introduction of anesthesia and nutrition by just plugging in. Too bad Better Place will not have a chance to test out these features.