Better Place launches another brand new business in Israel – used electric car sales.

Better Place, the company bringing an electric car infrastructure to Israel, has been changing so much about how the Israeli public thinks about transportation.  It has educated the public about the benefits of using electric cars, taught us that a whole new electric infrastructure can be created to replace fossil-fuel-guzzling gas stations, and now it is teaching us that yes, there is such a thing as a used electric cares salesman.  According to a recent agreement between Better Place and Trade Mobile, Better Place customers will be able to enjoy car trade-in services when buying or selling Renault Fluence Z.E. electric cars.

This is the first such agreement of its kind in the Israeli electric car market and is opening up a whole new green industry.

The trade-in agreement is environmentally significant in two ways: firstly, customers will be able to trade-in their traditional cars when buying an electric car, and secondly, electric car users wanting to upgrade can trade-in their Renault Fluence and let someone else enjoy it second-hand.  In both instances, cars are kept out of the landfills and consumers are moving to electric.

Menashe Barak, the CEO Trade Mobile, said that “from the beginning Better Place expressed its desire to establish a high level trade-in system to provide quality service to its clientele, and this is out of an understanding of the importance of the ‘second-hand market’ to the company.

“We believe that a stable and valuable second-hand market of electric family-sized vehicles will develop in Israel over the next few years,” Barak said.

Read more about Better Place::
Israeli Electric Cars on the Fast Track
13 “Better Place” Cars Hit the Streets of Israel to Test “Charge”
Better Place Launches Test Drive and Electric Car Education Facility in Israel

Image via: Hakan Dahlstrom

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Better Place’s electric car project in Denmark will finally get going in that country after all, says easyecar blog author Martin Thomson, who is an authority on several electric car models that are vying to be introduced into Denmark.

Thomson, who earlier said that Better Place’s electric car network  might not be suitable to the Danish market ,  appears to have softened his views on the network, which requires car owners to use only their system of battery charging posts and exchange stations on a monthly “subscription” basis.

In an updated Green Prophet interview with Thomson, he said that despite earlier issues surrounding the Better Place idea of having its own network of battery recharging and exchange stations , the concept may work out in his country as long as the company’s infrastructure is developed enough to service these cars.

He told Green Prophet that “one of the problems facing Better Place is the availability of only one car model, the Renault Fluence EV, that will be offered in Denmark at special prices due largely to the Denmark government’s lowering of purchases taxes on electric car models.

The Fluence is a family sized car that may be too large for some people who may prefer a smaller car model that is lighter weight and easier to park. Thomson said that despite this issue, Better Place may have an advantage over other companies, such as Nissan, whose Leaf electric model will only be available in Denmark sometime in 2012. The leaf may not be available in the Middle East , however, due to problems in establishing an infrastructure for them.

MUTE EV: Not for sale but with possible suspension innovations

Thomson also explained that he plans to attend the Fall Frankfurt Motor Show that will run September 15-16. A number of electric car models will be on display at this show, including a small, “dune buggy” shaped experimental model, the MUTE EV that weighs only 500 kg.

Although not intended to be put into actual production, this EV car prototype features special handling abilities due to a unique suspension system that could easily be incorporated into actual production models. Despite the appearance of many EV models, the main theme of the Frankfurt show will still be fossil or bio fuel models, including a European made 5 door Honda Civic hatchback model, said to have much better ride and handling capabilities than four door salon models.

Honda Camouflage 5 Door: not electric

Thomson said he will let us know about Better Place’s progress when the actual debut takes place. In the meantime, Israel is still waiting for an actual Better Place launch date; although there is talk that some cars may be given trial experience tests in a few selected company lease fleets.

MUTE EV Photo: AutoBlog.com

More on Better Place and other electric car issues in Denmark and elsewhere:

Easyecar’s Martin Thomson Says Better Place’s EV Plan Problematic for Denmark

Better Place Reveals Danish Electric Car Prices

Denmark Plans to (Slowly) Enter Electric Car Network

Middle East Will Remain “Leafless” as Nissan Puts Electric Car Efforts Elsewhere

The post Better Place Denmark Hopes to Get Electric Car Venture (Finally) Going in October appeared first on Green Prophet.

When the EV network builder Better Place launched their electric car battery exchange network in Denmark last month, not everyone was overly enthusiastic that the company’s unique system of  stations to exchange the special lithium ion battery pack with freshly charged ones would go over with the Danes. This is despite special tax incentives from the Danish government for purchasers of these cars.

Better Place battery switch station goes “live” in Israel

Many automobile testing people are not that overly excited,  including Martin Thomson, who has tested the Better Place Renault Fluence EV car, along with many others, and often posts the results of these tests on his web blog  Easyecar.com. When interviewed by Green Prophet on the subject of the Better Place electric car system, and on other types of ecological friendly “green” cars, Thomson shared his reservations about the battery exchange network, and doesn’t like the “fixed network” that requires a purchaser of a car with the Better Place system to use only their network.

He also wonder’s what will happen to owners of this car should something happen to the company itself.  He wonders:

“What happens if the company goes bankrupt – who will stand behind the cars and the batteries?”

Although a Renault –Nissan representative who was present for the Better Place launching assured him that Renault will stand behind the cars and the battery exchange network, Thomson still has doubts about having to deal with what appears to be a “monopoly” arrangement on behalf of Better Place.

He also is not too excited about the car’s cruising range on a full battery charge, which at present is only about 130 km. “People also have to be aware the power for the car’s accessories also comes from the battery pack, reducing the car’s cruising range even further.”

Thomson told Green Prophet that in Denmark  “a person is free to purchase the kind of electric car he wants and can recharge the batteries at home, without the need to subscribe to a network like that of Better Place.”

Denmark has one of the highest automobile taxation rates in the world, charging 180% taxes and duties on the car’s pretax value.

A purchaser of an electric car in Denmark, is exempted from paying virtually all of these taxes as an incentive by the government to induce people to purchase these cars. Thomson himself is very enthusiastic about the future of electric cars, and after having test driven enough of them says:”Once people get used to operating an electric car, they won’t be interested in going back to a petrol driven one.”

Thomson has also tested other green types of cars, including those using fuel cells powered by hydrogen: “Hydrogen engines use “3 to 5 times more energy to run them than electric cars. The hydrogen used to power the fuel cells burns too easily, making it more volatile, and hydrogen burning fuel cells are very expensive and don’t last a long time.”

He added that a hydrogen burning car’s fuel cells only last for about 155,000 km, which is much less than for a petrol driven car, and that  present prototypes of hydrogen cars “cost hundreds of thousands of Euros”. As to the plus factor of driving them, he says that hydrogen cars “are completely quiet and accelerate quite quickly.”

He doesn’t see them coming into the car market so quickly and will take at least 10 years to develop. “By that time, electric cars will have come into market much sooner than hydrogen powered ones.”

Read more on Better Place launch in Denmark and other news:

Denmark to (Slowly) Enter the Electric Car Network

Better Place Reveals Danish Electric Car Prices

Better Place Says U.K. Not Giving Electric Cars a (Tax) Break

Better Place Gets a “Charge” with GE Partnership

The post Easyecar’s Martin Thomson Says Better Place EV Plan Problematic for Denmark appeared first on Green Prophet.

Although the much written about Better Place electric car concept is a favorite on Green Prophet; and is even  criticized as being an electric car monopoly in its origin country Israel,  the cars themselves have yet to hit the streets on a commercial basis. At present, they are still considered as being in the testing stage.  In other parts of the world electric concept cars, especially dual engine hybrid models, are now on display at various motor shows, including a recent motor show  in Qatar.

Better Place cars still awaiting debut

The Qatar Motor show, which ran from 26-29 January, included a new Volkswagen concept car, the XL1, which claims to get 100 km on less than a liter of diesel fuel (313 mpg) definitely turned some heads, especially due to its sleek, futuristic lines.

The XL1, which contains a ultra fuel efficient diesel engine as well as an electric motor powered by lithium ion batteries, enables the car to reach a top speed of 160 km/h in its “sport mode”, and also has an energy saving “eco mode” which involves the use of its auxiliary electric motor.

The car is exceptionally light; its body being made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic materials, and only weighs 380 kg fully fueled. The car’s power train includes a 7 speed “DSG” transmission, also designed to provide maximum fuel economy. Since the car only made its official debut in Qatar, its manufactured suggested retail price has not been set yet.

Judging from the car’s appearance, it won’t be an everyman’s car as VW plans to produce it “on a very small scale”.

Chevy Volts on their way to purchasers

That’s not so for the General Motors Chevrolet Volt, as these cars are already rolling toward dealerships in various parts of the USA.

The Volt, also a dual engine hybrid, started reaching dealerships on a limited bases last year, and are now being delivered to customers in Washington D.C., California, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Texas.

GM says that the Volt will be available in all 50 states by the fourth quarter of this year.

Mind you, both of these cars are not total electric vehicles, like the Renault-Nissan Leaf , which is still waiting to be marketed in the Middle East.

The Volt itself will not be seen for the time being in Israel, due to government regulations requiring electric cars to only be available via an approved infrastructure that will not allow recharging them via a home electrical outlet. But elsewhere, especially in North America, Volts will definitely be on the roads a lot sooner than other models. And this is what GM is “banking” on, with its investment in this car.

::Inhabitat.com

Read more on Chevy Volts and other electric cars:

GM’s Volt Vs the Renault-Nissan Better Place Edition

Chevy Volt Hybrids Made from BO Oil Spill Booms

Maurice Test Drives the Better Place Electric Car

The post VW and GM in Full Gear for Electric Cars in Qatar appeared first on Green Prophet.

This may be just another Gulf State far-fetched innovation, like the white gold, biofuel-running Mercedes Benz in Abu Dhabi: Mr. Sultan bin Hamad al-Amri, CEO of Oman’s Noor Majan is promoting what will be the Middle East’s first locally assembled electric car.

Featured in Oman’s English language news media Times of Oman the super fast luxury car will be designed to travel from zero to 60 mph in about 4 seconds, roll for 2,250 miles on a single electrical charge, and last as long as 21 years without any maintenance.

Sound too good to be true? A dozen years ahead in 2022… and Tesla is racing ahead. And the Noor Majan funded project will go into production next year. It is being led by a startup co-production called Mays Motors. The Omani electric car prototype features below:

The car’s price is said to be “somewhere between $71 and $90 thousand dollars,” which is cheaper than another electric luxury car, the Tesla Motors sports roadster and coupe that has been featured on Green Prophet, and sells for only $100,000.

The claim that the Oman electric version can “roll for 2,250 miles” on a single electrical charge makes many people wonder what kind of battery, or batteries, will be installed.

According to earthtechling (link was down in 2022), the news sounds too good to be true: “At present, the Tesla Roadster has the best range of any  EV on the market (along with the biggest battery), covering 245 miles (claimed) between charges: most new electric cars under development for today’s market will only get 70 to 100 miles before needing a plug-in.”

Designed by the Better Place electric car concept company, headed by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, the Renault electric cars are scheduled to be seen on the roads in Europe and Israel sometime during 2011. Test runs in Tokyo, however show the cars can get only 80 to 100 kilometres on a single charge.

On the Omani car, Mr. Al Amri says that: “The parts of the car, including the 800-horsepower engine, are manufactured in Japan, America, Germany and Hong Kong. The car will have a solar-powered air conditioner and be fitted with massage chairs.”

Massage chairs? This kind of accessory will surely use up some of that 2,250 mile cruising range, and will be a bit distracting to the driver as well. Perhaps solar cells that will power the car’s air conditioning system might also be able to recharge the car’s batteries while in motion. In other electric car models, this idea has still to be innovated, including the Renault-Better Place design concept, the Tesla, and The GM Chevrolet Volt, which is more like a hybrid as it incorporates a small fossil fuel burning engine as a reserve power source.

Palestine Polytechnic’s electric car not much to look at, but it is solar powered.

One additional word regarding Al Amri’s claim that the Oman electric car will be the Middle East’s first electric car: a solar-powered electric car prototype has already been built as a project by a group of engineering students at Palestine’s Hebron Polytechnic University.

Though not much to look at, it does work and if put into production would cost considerably less than other electric car models.

Perhaps Oman’s Al Amri and the Hebron Polytechnic U. should consider forming a partnership.

Read more on electric car technology:
Solar Powered Electric Car Takes to the Streets of Hebron
Maurice Test Drives the Better Place Electric Car
Middle East Will Remain Leafless as Nissan Promotes Electric Car Technology Elsewhere

The post Oman’s Noor Majan builds electric car appeared first on Green Prophet.

And apparently this is a mode of operation that makes sense to other entrepreneurs worldwide.  Daniel Whitman, a Chicago architect and social entrepreneur, recently founded GlobalTap – a for-profit social enterprise with the dual mission of selling/installing tap water refilling stations in public places in North America and Europe, and then using the revenues to fund much needed water projects in developing countries.

Basically, using the funding coming from privileged places to fund water projects in considerably less privileged places.  “Water should be free and accessible to everybody,” Whitman says.

Similar to project Better Place, GlobalTap will work towards setting up water refilling stations (aka fancy water fountains) in public places such as parks and sidewalks.  These stations, which have been sleekly designed by IDEO, would be purchased by municipalities, generating the funding for the projects in the developing world.  They would also encourage the use of refillable water bottles, such as Nalgenes or aluminum bottles, as opposed to the pervasive and not often reused plastic water bottle.

The design for the “water refilling stations” – shown above – is strikingly similar to the Better Place recharge stations (shown to the right)… even boasting the same bright blue color.  Coincidence?

Read more about Project Better Place::

NewDealDesign’s Gadi Amit Designs Charge Spots For Better Place Electric Cars

Can the American-Danish MethaEnergy Compete With Better Place?

Project Better Place Unveils Prototype of Electric Car Recharging Station

The post GlobalTap Offers Water Refilling Stations in North America, Bringing Better Water a la "Better Place" appeared first on Green Prophet.

Following the ongoing saga of Project Better Place‘s steady process of world domination, we can now add a new country to the list: Japan.

The news just in is that the Japanese Environment Ministry is inviting Better Place to take part in their feasibility project for building a network of charging stations in Japan. Better Place is the only foreign company that was invited to participate in the project, which will begin in January in the port city of Yokohama and last for three to six months.

Better Place has already signed on to implement its project in places as diverse as Hawaii, Israel, California, Denmark and Australia.

Founder and chief executive of Better Place Shai Agassi commented, “Better Place is honored to participate in this groundbreaking program in a country with so much auto-manufacturing expertise and history.”

::International Herald Tribune

Read more at Green Prophet about the growing phenomenon of Project Better Place:

REVA Electric Cars May Soon Be For Sale in Israel
Project Better Place Unveils Prototype of Electric Car Recharging Station
Israel’s Electric Car Guru Shai Agassi Gets Wired

Image credit: jorgeml

The post Shai Agassi's Project Better Place to Seal a Deal with Japan? appeared first on Green Prophet.

But let’s face it – Tel Aviv’s light rail is not just around the corner, and in fact it has never looked further away.

This week, the banks that were supposed to loan $1.4 billion to MTS, the consortium that won the tender for the project’s construction, announced that they cannot follow through on their commitments.

Right: A computer rendering of the underground section of Tel Aviv’s future mass transit system. (image via skyscraperlife.com)

This should not come as a huge shock. After MTS repeatedly failed to meet deadlines for securing financial backing for the project, the world financial crisis hit, taking out some of the key players: Bank of Scotland, a major lender, was nationalized, AIG, the insurer, collapsed, and the rest are now demanding fundamental changes in the tender, in light of lessons learned from Jerusalem’s light rail project. MTS will find it very difficult to make the next deadline in late January.

Tel Aviv’s light rail/subway, which has been in the planning stages since Golda Meir was in power, does not seem likely to be built in this generation. It’s time to start thinking outside the box.

Right: Light rail tracks under construction in Jerusalem. (photo via skyscraperlife.com)

In Jerusalem, people have taken to calling the city’s light rail the “blight rail” (rakevet klala, a play on raveket kala). Meant to be up and running by 2006, the project is now on track to open in 2011.

From day one, the project was a headache for everyone involved. Engineering problems meant that tracks had to be ripped up and replaced. The company that won the tender claimed that the city wasn’t cooperative in issuing permits, sued the city, and won. Cost overruns had to be covered by taxpayers. The Calatrava bridge at the city’s entrance, planned without seeking the public’s input, ignited plenty of controversy. Jaffa Street, running through the center of downtown Jerusalem, looks like the site of an archaeological excavation. Jerusalemites are fed up of the traffic nightmare in their city. Shopowners on Jaffa Street have lost much of their business, and have started their own protest movement against the light rail. Former mayor Uri Lupolianski, who once thought he would time the opening of the light rail to occur just before the city’s elections, miscalculated and lost to Nir Barkat.

True, when the light rail finally starts running, it will be a huge benefit to the city – the air will be cleaner, it will be easier to get around, the city center might even come back to life. But the painful and incompetent process of planning and construction will likely deter other Israeli cities from building their own light rails. Haifa, for example, opted instead for a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, based on extended buses in exclusive lanes. Newly elected Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat has proposed that new lines in Jerusalem be based on this technology as well.

Left: Future subway and light rail lines planned for metropolitan Tel Aviv. (image via Wikipedia.com)

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, the city is still struggling to set up its first mass transit line. The Red Line, from Petach Tikva to Bat Yam is supposed to be part light rail, part subway.

At conference after conference, speakers harshly criticize the Tel Aviv Municipality. This is perhaps one of the only issues where the green organizations, the Treasury, the Environmental Protection Ministry, the Transportation Ministry and numerous citizens’ organizations are in absolute agreement. They all agree that Mayor Ron Huldai’s insistence on building transit lines underground inside Tel Aviv’s city limits is what is holding up the project. A subway is several times more expensive to build than a light rail, and the technical issues are infinitely more complex.

City officials counter that a subway is the only solution that satisfies technical requirements. Meanwhile, the city continues to widen roads, build new highways and dig underground parking lots for the approximately 60,000 new cars added to the road every year in metropolitan Tel Aviv.

While the discussion about mass transit in Tel Aviv continues to stagnate, circumstances have changed. The global credit crunch has made huge mega-projects unrealistic, at least for the foreseeable future. Shai Agassi’s Better Place Project, with its leased electric cars, and car-sharing programs like Car2Go are beginning to change the way people think about their relationship with the private vehicle. In response to the expected economic downturn, the Treasury is preparing plans for an economic stimulus package based on transportation and infrastructure projects (although, unlike Obama’s stimulus package, Israel’s will not contain much in the way of green thinking).

Let’s learn from Jerusalem’s mistakes. Tel Aviv doesn’t need an expensive subway and light rail system that will snarl traffic for the next decade, only to start running someone around 2020 with technologies that are already obsolete. If the city wants more breathable air, less traffic jams, less noise and traffic accidents, an immediate solution is needed. If only we had someone in City Hall capable of connecting the dots.

A City for All’s team, now part of the City Council. (image via www.city4all.org.il)

But wait – we do. Now the largest faction on the city council, A City for All has a plan to reduce car traffic and create mass transit called “Mobility for All” (Hebrew link). Drawn up by a citizens’ forum, the plan is still being developed, but the idea will be to create immediate, comprehensive solutions to get people around the city. Despite being one of the only factions not to join Ron Huldai’s coalition, and therefore effectively the opposition, A City for All is thinking pragmatically about how to get things done based on finding common ground with coalition factions (more on this in future posts).

Faced with similar choices in the 1970’s, the city of Curitiba, Brazil used sheer ingenuity to create solutions to its transportation problems. There is absolutely no reason why Tel Aviv, which is blessed with one of the greatest concentrations of creative minds in the world, cannot come up with immediate and effective means of rescuing itself from the traffic jam it has been stuck in for over a decade.

The post Will the Tel Aviv Light Rail Ever Happen? Do We Want it To? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Though Green Prophet is skeptical about Shai Agassi‘s Project Better Place, we are watching the developments of the project with interest. This week, the prototype of the electric car recharging station was unveiled in Israel. The prototype was designed in San Francisco and developed in Israel with the cooperation of Nekuda DM.

The station features two sockets for the simultaneous charging of two electric cars. The plan is for 400 of these stations to be installed in various locations in Israel as part of a six month pilot program, followed by similar installations in Hawaii, Denmark, Australia and California. The projected date of deployment is 2010, so don’t get rid of your car just yet. (Unless of course you can.)

Tal Agassi, director of infrastructure products and international deployment development for Better Place, said, “In designing and deploying the charge spot, our top priority is the driver’s experience. We set out to design a user friendly and simple charging experience for the user that will encourage drivers to switch from the pump to the plug.”

:: ISRAEL21c

The post Project Better Place Unveils Prototype of Electric Car Recharging Station appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Israel cleantech world is buzzing over BrightSource and its subsidiary Luz II. The companies recently invited the press to visit the world’s first operating solar thermal field in the Negev Desert, for creating clean and efficient solar energy. The 12,000 square meter test site will generate 1.5 MW of electricity.

Cheaper heliostats, no need for oil since water (used for steam) is directly heated, and the fact that they can achieve a higher concentration of sunlight (focused by 1,600 computerized heliostats atop a 60 meter tower) are all factors that make BrightSource the most efficient solar energy solution (says the company). If the pilot tests to be true, the company plans on building 5 similar power plants in California’s Mojave Desert in the next 10 years.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ7uTu6PRD4[/youtube]

If Israel can generate a significant amount of its power needs through clean fuel like solar energy, we’d be more keen on Shai Agassi’s electric car (Project Better Place). See our post Green Smoke and Mirrors on The Huffington Post about why a nationwide electric car solution is not ideal for Israel. At least not within the next decade or so.

Also check out Autoblog Green where we were criticized for being a latte slurping, Prius collecting liberal. It’s pretty funny. For the record, this Green Prophet does not slurp and she does not even own a car.

Let the sunshine in!

See also the Light of a Thousand Suns, solar research from Ben Gurion University.

The post BrightSource and Luz II Create World's First Solar Thermal Field Pilot in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.