Posted on 10/25/2010 4:51:12 PM PDT by SJackson
Israeli drivers will be the first in the world to test a fleet of 100,000 electric cars and the sceptics will be watching closely.
The Renault Fluence ZE, or zero emission, looks nothing like the weird-shaped machines some might associate with early electric cars.
It looks and runs like your typical family sedan.
Israeli entrepreneur Tal Agassi runs the company Better Place, one of the world leaders in developing electric car technology, with his brother Shai.
If they get their way, the Renault Fluence may well go down in history as the electric equivalent of the T-model Ford.
"The tipping point is going to be faster than what the market thinks," he said.
"We believe that once people drive those cars and understand [that they are] not limited and have a better car for a cheaper cost, it will be a no-brainer for people to move from gasoline cars to [electric cars]."
Mr Agassi's company plans to roll out the first of 100,000 fully electric cars onto Israeli roads next year.
"We have signed today, up to date about 150 companies, big fleets that have thousands of cars," he said.
"We have about a potential of 50,000 to 60,000 cars. They're already lined up and signed up today.
"In 2011 when we launch the market we will have low thousands of cars, but from everything we're seeing today, the demand for those cars is going to be very high, [we are] probably not going to have enough cars here in Israel to supply all the demand in year one."
What makes this electric car different from earlier prototypes is the system for recharging or changing the battery so that drivers can stay on the road even after the battery goes flat.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc.net.au ...
Nice looking car.
I also found out my SUV is more recycle-able (80%) than a Prius, for example, (with all the batteries).
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Israel isn't the US, driving distances are relatively short. Still, look at the silly solution private enterprise comes up with for both the cost of replacing batteries, and the time to charge them.
Better Place will own the battery and drivers will sign up for a package of kilometres, not unlike a mobile phone plan....You will go to a petrol station but you'll switch your battery. The way people will get energy is by going to a charge point
As I understand it, the battery exchange is automated, and takes 15 minutes or so. You simply lease the battery. Many of the early participants are taxis.
A silly idea, I know, it caters to convenience. Which is why the company is working on access to a number of countries. The US not amongst them. Government will come up with a better idea.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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I like the idea of an electric car. I just don’t want one shoved down my throat against my will.
Replacing the batteries certainly resolves the issue of quickly recharging the battery. Of course making all those extra batteries is bad for the environment. :)
Government will come up with a better idea? What have you been smoking?
Israel is the obvious place for this experiment. In Israel, it is literally impossible to drive your car more than 100 miles from home, so there is no need for a massive wide-spread network of battery-exchange stations as you would have to have in the US.
On the other hand, with the big new NG discoveries off Israel’s Mediterranean coast, they will likely largely free themselves from the need for oil in the very near future anyway.
The more people drive electric cars, the more, cheaper gas for me! Anyone who wants to get off my personal favorite fuel, is fine by me.
I think like in safety, all government vehicles should be ordered first to be electric. Electric cop cars, fire trucks, ambulance, admin.
It is the perfect place, as could be many urban areas where people could string extension cords from their high rises. However the 100 mile range is still an issue, as it battery replacement cost, which guarantees significant vehicle depreciation, though I suppose Obama could provide a tax credit for that too. I don’t know if this style electric car would be cost effective vs gasoline, plenty of other options I’d explore. But my point was that this is a private market solution which seems to address some of the shortcomings of electric. Beyond that, they have to compete.
They face the same problem that is just beginning to be considered here, how do you charge the damned thing??
There was an article here earlier about GM’s coming electric car the Volt, retails for $41,000 and requires you to buy a special charging station for an additional $500, which then has to be professionally wired into your 220 volt electric service by an electrician, cost depending on your area, and what the permits cost along with the going rate for electricians, plus materials.
In addition, the Volt requires four hours for a partial charge and eight hours for a full charge. I have no idea how many amps it draws, but I imagine if you run your dryer for eight hours a day, every day for a month, you might get a good idea of the costs to charge.
I wonder how many of these charging units need to be installed in a residential neighborhood before they all overwhelm the local substation and transmission lines?? Costs to repair and improve depending on your area, and what condition your local grid is in.
What a deal! Especially if you live in an area that burns coal to generate your electricity! And so you can go forty whole miles on a charge!!
WHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE............!!!!!!!
It appears this Israeli company took their original plan, which was to produce their own cars, and changed it to offer a joint plan with Renault where the Renault car is designed to use the Israeli company’s electric-power-source technology that provides for rapid switch-out of the spent battery pack with an already charged pack.
If the idea works technically and works economically, keeping a 100% battery-run car (in the future) “filled up” on long trips should be no more inconvenient than the many gas stops that are now required. I liked the idea - the concept - when I first read about it a few years ago, and I still do.
Soldier at an Israeli roadblock: “Excuse me sir, is that a battery or a bomb?”
Driver: “Praise Allah, that is my spare battery.”
Those electric car batteries sure are ‘da bomb’! LOL! :)
As GW Bush said when he stood on the Golan Heights, “It is farther from the gate post of my ranch to the house than it is to cross this country.” He was kidding but not much. Of course an electic car works there, it would be great in Honolulu too 8 miles by 10 miles... in Texas not so much.
Any country bigger than Delaware, not so much...
All what batteries exactly?
Why is it that people who know the least say it the loudest?
Exactely, my Prius has 6, “6 pack of beer sized” batteries that weigh 99 pounds in a 2900 pound car.
Yes you are partly correct. Will explain. Plus “bat pac” sounds more singular. ;)
The batteries (battery pac) cannot be recycled. You do not know what I drive therefore you cannot dismiss my comparison of the recycle issue. My neighbor drives a Ford SUV hybrid and he does not get much more miles per gal than I do when traveling. That is the comparison I should have used when we can get into counting cells etc-comparing the “old” designed battery to the present ‘pac’. Honda just had a recall on their civic hybrid.
A prius would not go well in the winter where I am. Plus you couldnt sell me anything with a Toyota name on it. I have no recalls on my vehicle and have had 3..and just keeps getting better. Plus I carry more vehicle weight and still come in closer to the lighter weight vehicle.
Lithium ion batteries are improving, but that cost will continue to stunt the demand.
I will gradually ease into the next technology in my make of vehicle—not a rush to push a vehicle down the throats of Americans because Gore blamed the industry for global warming. (Anyone seen Gore?). Toyota paid the price in putting the cart before the horse, they admitted.
We are not Europe.
Love the more personal attacks when you could have just have corrected me like a “grown up” with facts, not leave your FReeper audience hanging. ;)
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