A Sad Day

[Phoebe]

It's a sad day when anything to do with electric cars fails www.betterplace.com/the-company/press-room

[Jim Hare]

I read about that. Sad indeed...

[Brian]

Sad indeed.

It was a great concept that worked well.

I read recently of the experience of an EV ( ? Renault ) owner in Israel who was very happy with the service, and used it for inter-city travel - drive into a Better Place service point with a low battery, and within five minutes the old battery was removed ( to be re-charged ) and a fully charged battery installed. The system was fully automated and available 24 / 7.

But, as with any business, it needed volume to succeed, and the public uptake has been too little, too late, something we EV pioneers know all too well.

[duncan]

It is sad. I guess like any new markets some things work and some things don't.

I honestly could not see a mass market need for battery swap stations though. There is too much chicken and egg between swap stations and a lot of cars needing them.

Overnight charging when required (and a FFB backup car) works fine for me.

[Brian]

I believe the concept could have worked well in countries with large, concentrated populations, where distances separating cities and towns were not great, such as in Europe.

But it would be drawing a long bow to expect the system to work in Australia with our far greater distances and relatively smaller population.