JERUSALEM (AP) — It was an audacious idea that came to symbolize Israel’s self-described status as “Start-Up Nation,” a company that believed it could replace most gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles and reduce the world’s reliance on oil — and all within a few years.
But it all came crashing down.
The company, Better Place, started out as a source of pride and a symbol of Israel’s status as a global high-tech power, but it suffered from a local brand of hubris and overreach. On Sunday, it announced plans to liquidate after burning through almost a billion dollars and failing to sell its silent fleet of French-made sedans to a skeptical public.
“This is a very sad day for all of us. We stand by the original vision as formulated by Shai Agassi of creating a green alternative that would lessen our dependence on highly polluting transportation technologies,” the company said. “Unfortunately, the path to realizing that vision was difficult, complex and littered with obstacles, not all of which we were able to overcome.”
…
Agassi, 45, believed that in an era of global warming and rising oil prices, environmentally friendly electric cars could be the wave of the future, if only a way could be found to overcome the limited range of their batteries.
Full story here: http://www.ecnmag.com/news/2013/05/trailblazing-israeli-electric-car-company-close
Electric car is like communism. Everywhere it has tried it has failed, but keep on resurrecting cause of a Utopian dream, and enough people believed if you banged your head long enough and hard enough it will succeed.
Of course they’re sitting at the bar denying that it was their fault. It must be the fault of all those stupid people out there that won’t buy their product and the stupid government that won’t make them buy it.
Well if they had a government like ours the pisses away $$ on subsidiary’s on companies like TSLA they would be still in business. What is it, $45,000 per TSLA vehicle sold.
Many multiple millionaires at TALA now thank to tax payer $$$..
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=tsla&ql=1
Sort of like the government subsidizing and mandating a new suppository……isn’t it?
Whatever happened to the excited newscasts I heard about cars that ran solely on salt water? Was that also stomped into oblivion? Judy Williams
_____
Logic dictates the electric car is incompatible with human nature’s desire for independence. Until one can be fully recharged in 5 minutes, they’ll be nothing more than a minute market segment.
Maybe throwing a few more billions into the pit will help out. Why give up now? Electric cars have a definite place in the future. within the next 100 years or so. Perhaps by then the battery issues will be resolved.
Forget electric cars they should create a car that runs on bullshit. There is an unlimited supply coming from politicians and we could run on that crap for years.
I highly doubt Agassi is walking away from his failed venture a poor man.
goldminor says May 28, 2013 at 1:52 pm
“Perhaps by then the battery issues will be resolved.”
With the various failures, it’s the battery, isn’t it? too heavy, too expensive, too limited charge-life.
In town we see all sorts of SmartForTwo, Car2Go, tiny bits of cars that you wouldn’t want to take on a long drive …. even to a grocery store. But people buy them. Enviro-friendly (if such a thing) personal vehicles are not a difficult sell …. provided the price is right.
Tesla et al are selling a high-end car (or trying to) because the electric capabilities are expensive; only in a $100,000 car does a $12,000 battery “disappear” from a pricing point of veiw. An in-town car that only costs $5,000 new doesn’t have to do more than 100 kilometers per day. But that is impossible with the cost of batteries.
It would be better and more fuel-efficient if we had small motorcycle engines running our teeny eco-green rides, as some ancient European cars did (to avoid the Russian prohibition against making “cars” outside of the allowed places). But that doesn’t sound very eco-green, and of course it is the appearance and sound of being eco-green that counts, not the reality.
…Electric car is like communism. Everywhere it has tried it has failed…
No it isn’t. It’s like Capitalism, and everywhere it’s been staggeringly successful.
Look at the data. Chap gathers some seed capital, goes to a government body and takes millions in subsidies to open a big high-tech manufacturing capability. Pays himself a decent Director’s wage, and a big pension pot. And imagine how much kick-back you can get from all those set-up contracts.
After a while, the government department wants to know where the subsidies went. Time to close down the company, rinse and repeat, preferably in another country where you can use the fact that you were the managing director of ‘GreenCar Inc.’ to establish your bona fides as you take them for the same amount…
As Willis says: “What’;s not to like?”. Successful creative Capitalism…..
Nope. Not many buyers of any of the EVs. I saw my first Chevy Volt the other day. So… now I’ve seen… one.
I live in a metropolitan area of about 1.5 million and commute each day from the north side to the south side of the region. I’ve seen a lot more Lambos and Ferraris than EVs. I saw my first Jaguar station wagon before I saw a Volt and I wasn’t even aware that Jaguar made a wagon; ever.
I’m wondering if the two vehicles in the photo above were even sold and privately owned. I would not be surprised in the least if the company had to provide two vehicles for the shot. (The give-away is there is no “My kid is an Honor Student at XXXX” bumper sticker on either of the cars.)
@dodgy geezer If it requires subsidy it isn’t capitalism.
Now the thing I fine amusing here is, this company wanted to sell an electric car so they chose… Renault. A company infamous for the dodgy electrics in their cars.
Think about that for a moment.
Is it any wonder they failed?
“…failing to sell its silent fleet of French-made sedans to a skeptical public.”
Love that bit. Especially “skeptical public.” Music to my ears.
I was shocked when I saw the prices Better Place was asking for the right to use their swapping stations. It doesn’t surprise me that the company folded – and their cars had zero desirability – Agassi made the mistake of assuming that people want electric cars so much that they will accept
anything on wheels. That is where Tesla made the right decision : build a great car and aim for the well-heeled enviros. Actually, Israel is such a small, almost landlocked country, that an electric with a driving range of roughly 175 miles is probably all you’ll need. Ditto for Denmark and Hawaii.There cars would be completely competitive with gas powered jobs with respect to driving range. Agassi actually designed his cars on the basis of the exorbitant battery prices prevalent at the time. He did not foresee the huge price reductions that have since occurred. In effect, that changed the playing field and made his swapping scheme total overkill. Electric cars are intrinsically superior to gas powered jobs in every way, EXCEPT for the high price and
slow recharge speed of batteries. The faster the battery can be recharged, the less important
battery capacity (driving range) becomes. And practical batteries are NOT far off. When they arrive, it will be like the movies when talkies appeared – gas powered vehicles, like silent films, will disappear in an instant.
Partial electrification makes current economic sense at current oil prices, which will rise over the next decade. The electrified side of hybrids will get cheaper with use of ‘hybrid energy storage’ comprised of more energy dense, therefore cheaper LiIon plus more power dense ultracaps for idle off, regen braking, and accel boost, plus necessary Dc/Dc power electronics that get cheaper with SoS at higher frequencies. Argonne National Labs has this worked out, as well as some solutions for higher energy density LiIon already licenses to players like GM.
Unless electricity comes from hydro and nucs, all a fully electrified vehicle does is move carbon emissions from the tailpipe to the smokestack. It doesn’t actually reduce them when you correctly work out net delivered energy efficiencies for existing developed world grids.
Tesla lives on about $45k net subsidy per $75k “S” vehicle. A terrific milk the taxpayer model, but nothing to do with real world economics and most vehicle purchasers. For that reason, they will eventually fail also, despite recent IPO hype. All it takes is for Congress (possible) or California ( not possible until more of the state is in bankruptcy proceedings) to come to their senses.
H.R. I think the Jag was a custom aftermarket job, if my failing memory serves me right – was in a car mag /mark
H.R. says:
May 28, 2013 at 2:15 pm
“I’m wondering if the two vehicles in the photo above were even sold and privately owned. I would not be surprised in the least if the company had to provide two vehicles for the shot. (The give-away is there is no “My kid is an Honor Student at XXXX” bumper sticker on either of the cars.)”
Europeans and probably Israelis as well tend to not have bumper stickers – with the exception of some anti nuclear folks and the clunkers of hipsters.
The twerp/conman, Agassi says “vision”. More like a mirage.
Just like Utopia, in fact.
arthur4563 says:
May 28, 2013 at 2:21 pm
“Electric cars are intrinsically superior to gas powered jobs in every way, EXCEPT for the high price and slow recharge speed of batteries.”
I agree. It’s difficult to make a gas powered car emit a stream of 500 degree C hot acidic gas mixture.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer country.
There seems to be little recognition of the extreme difficulty of maintaining a viable car manufacturing company. Even those with a fairly long history and some semblance of a customer base have been disappearing i.e. Saab with Volvo predicted to shortly follow suit. Absent massive governmental interference GM and Chrysler would also be gone. Although the conspiratorially minded have suggested the major manufacturers are dedicated to supressing EVs, the truth is that all of them have have been ratholing billions trying to come up with a viable one for years and not all of that has been from government R&D subsidies. If major manufacturers with their relatively massive financial resources can’t make it work, the notion that a “Start-up” commencing from zero can design and build a clean sheat effort that provides what most people expect from their personal transportation these days, is incredibly optimistic.
Tesla has certainly become a media and stock market darling and they actually seem to have a fairly decent vehicle, but what happens when they face their first major recall and have to spend millions providing a fix. Perhaps they’ll be able to avoid that, but they do have a clean sheet design and the idea that they have got absolutely everything exactly right is one I wouldn’t bet much on. They have also adopted a direct sales model that has alienated most of the car dealers in the country. What happens when their customers start having rattles in the dashboard, balky seat adjusters, or any of the myriad of other problems that arise in any vehicle. If you have a Tesla out here in flyoverland, who do you see to do any of these routine services?
Electric car components often claim lower running costs. However, in the UK, about 80% of the cost of petrol is actually tax, so the comparison is a nonsense.
Perhaps electric car drivers would like to tell us which extra taxes they would like to pay in lieu.
BTW – last year, 2198 electric cars were sold in the UK, about 0.1% of all cars sales.
Govt targets are 1.7 million on the road by 2020.
Even the Soviets had more realistic 5-year plans!
http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/electric-car-sales-in-the-uk-2012/
EVs are dead; OPEC is splintering with internal dissension, look for oil prices to drop.
US oil production increasing due to hydraulic fracturing is the cause of OPEC’s heartburn.
The oil and gas geeks win! Again. As before.
“Well if they had a government like ours the pisses away $$ on subsidiary’s on companies like TSLA they would be still in business. What is it, $45,000 per TSLA vehicle sold.
Many multiple millionaires at TALA now thank to tax payer $$$..”
You might be interested in…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-23/tesla-pays-back-u-s-early-as-musk-aims-for-affordability.html