Globe Drive

Last May in Yokohama, Japan, Better Place and its auto partner, Nissan, showed their vision of how to extend the range of electric cars while also cutting costs to the consumer: the battery-swap station.

It involves two robotic shuttles scurrying below an electric car in a service bay. One swiftly removes a spent battery pack, the other then lifts a fully charged pack into place. All in less than a minute.

Better Place envisions an international network of battery-swap stations for electric vehicles. They will allow electric car drivers to “fill up” on a charged battery in less time than it takes to pump a tank of gas.

Moreover, instead of paying thousands extra for a car because of its lithium ion battery, customers would pay an affordable fee to use batteries supplied by Better Place. That will dramatically reduce the up-front price of a new electric car.

How the Better Place concept car connects to the company's charging infrastructure.

The business plan takes its inspiration from the mobile phone industry. As with cellphones, where most customers pay by the minute or buy fixed-rate plans, Better Place customers will pay by the mile driven or buy a fixed-rate plan that allows unlimited miles and battery swaps.

Better Place plans to open battery-swap stations in Israel and Denmark some time next year and in California and Hawaii six to nine months later. The company will provide swap-and-go batteries for electric vehicles from Nissan and Renault.

“In 2011, what you'll see is on the magnitude of tens of thousands” of the battery packs, Better Place founder and chief executive officer Shai Agassi told trade journal Automotive News. “In 2013, [the number] will be at hundreds of thousands.” He reckons each station will cost $500,000.

Of course, the battery-swap concept requires a standardized battery pack and electric vehicle design. If every EV has a different design and battery, the robots won't be able to swap batteries efficiently. Agassi says Better Place is “in serious discussions with 10 companies” on a standardization approach.

But this is not a small problem. Many in the auto industry do not believe that a critical mass of car makers will agree to design cars around one battery standard. Battery technology is advancing too quickly for the industry and individual companies to settle on a standardized battery design.

Better Place also wants to put in place a global network of millions of small-scale “charging spots,” that allow car owners to juice up when stopped for relatively longer periods of time. The company is in the early stages of constructing these parking-meter-like posts around downtown areas and along highways all over the world.

So Better Place envisages a dual EV infrastructure. Customers would be able to charge their cars by plugging into a charge spot at home or at work. But for a long drive, battery-swap stations would be available to keep travellers on the road with freshly charged batteries.

Better Place hopes to make money by selling these services, perhaps buying electricity in bulk and reselling it to customers, and by charging utilities, governments and other electric grid providers to manage the demands of an EV fleet.