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
mrmethane says:
May 8, 2013 at 2:29 pm
H.R. I think the Jag was a custom aftermarket job, if my failing memory serves me right – was in a car mag /mark
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Nope. I was just looking at a car collection that is being assembled for auction at the Olds College in Alberta on June 21 to 23, 2013. The collection includes several station wagon Jags. I understand they are stock.
http://100.oldscollege.ca/JackAndersonAuto
A difference between an electric car and a flying car: an electric car is possible in principle, and has many advantages over an internal combustion engine car. The technology is, sadly, not quite there yet.
The flying car is also possible in principle, and highly desirable, but it faces three times as many problems. I don’t expect to see a practical one in my lifetime.
Oops, my bad. I saw the Jaguar Station wagon at a car show along with several other high end station wagons – like Porsche – I believe they started making Jag Wagons in 2002. Sorry.
I’ve just invented a wireless car…
In re the Jaguar “station wagon”. In Britain they’re generally known as “shooting brakes”. I don’t think Jaguar ever made one themselves, but a number of custom coachbuilders offered conversions on various models over the years. They are rare even in Britain and much more so in the U.S. There have been rumors that Jag may offer a Sportbrake version of their new XF model.
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1073437_2013-jaguar-xf-sportbrake-leaked-ahead-of-geneva-motor-show
They are all political in what I call the forgone conclusion syndrome.. Electric cars, the northern passage for transport, all that oil and gas at the north pole.. All used to reinforce the the global warming scam..
PR news bits that nobody in their right mind would invest a dime of their OWN MONEY in..
Electricity is a mechanism for transmitting energy. It is not an energy source. Electric cars only make sense to reduce local pollution. In a time of energy abudance their inherent inefficiency might make sense. If energy prices are high they are no more than part of the marketing budget for big companies, to curry favour with a public who don’t understand the second law of thermodynamics. Same applies to hydrogen cars. They might make sense if we had to find a way of storing renewable energy that came at the wrong time – overnight for instance. How long will it take for the public to see through all this flannel? About the same time as it will take for them to recognise the flawed basis of CAGW, I guess…
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer country,” sneered Policy Critic at 2:36PM.
“Electric Car Company Goes Belly-up? Good!” thought Janice, then, her face fell. “If only it weren’t Israel.”
GO, ISRAEL!
Another perpetual motion machine bites the dust.
Market forces. They keep forgetting market forces.
@Janice Moore –
Too bad Israel had to waste so much of its scarce resources on this boondoggle – which, if you look closely isn’t even green – when all the emissions for manufacturing and hazmats involved in its production are factored in, it’s dirtier than your good old-fashined internal-combustion hydrocarbon-powered car by a country mile.
I wonder of the Israelis who pushed this piece of garbage are among those Sonderkommando types in Israel who want peace at any price with (translation: surrender to) Arab aggression.
Dodgy Geezer says:
May 28, 2013 at 2:12 pm
In capitalism the government can’t give out subsidies… subsidies is socialism border lining on communism. At best in a very lightly called “capitalist” market the government could give them some minor tax break…
End run meaningless though the fed reserve can spend about 30 min extra printing that billion dollars. Or just hold ctrl+P for about 30 seconds… either way billions is the new ten dollar bill.
Anthony, I want to post this and have a lot of experience with those confined to wheel chairs. Have a family member and a couple of friend’s who are unfortunately in that position and have spend quite a lot modifying my home so that they would have access. (I may need that someday myself so I have no problem doing it).
http://www.oocities.org/stuportner/files/battery.htm
There have been very recent modifications made for ‘safety reasons’ of a certain person who acquired a new wheel chair (BATTERY ISSUES), but the new design includes a really low bolt that extends from the bottom of that chair and only allows less than 1/2 inch (nearly 1/4 inch) clearance to gain entry anywhere, and is designed for driving a vehicle modified for that new chair (that hey say that cannot be changed).
Her chair now hangs up (gets stuck on minor obstacles) that are insignificant including the ramp that extends from the vehicle. (I will do a weigh in of the chair in a couple of days but it is very heavy).
If they cannot design an electric chair with good electronics and a battery (we have discussed the medical here in comments before), then the electric car is done and hopefully the a-holes who profit from this.
btw, Zero Hedge did a thing today about AGW and you won!
@John sure no problem.
Not sure what you mean about Zero Hedge, was there some sort of contest?
follow the money…..several someones got rich…..who?
Better Place’s downfall was that they focused too much on the midrange market. With the plan and technology that they developed, it would have been a smarter strategy to target large city taxi fleets and commercial enterprises.
To do that, they would need more than just a passenger car; at the very least, a light truck and a delivery van. One aspect of the plan was using both the cars and the swap stations as grid energy storage.
I don’t know how aggressively they pursued that goal but, in the near to medium term, that would have brought in far more cash than selling a couple thousand EVs and pricey service plans.
Hi, Chad — finally got to “connect” — hope all is well with you.
Re: “I wonder of the Israelis who pushed this piece of garbage are … .”
Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised. They certainly were not fans of Milton Friedman!
If you need a tax payer subsidy to break even on your cost of production, you need to go back to the drawing board!
(and good point, BTW, about Holy Cars being a net-CO2 “polluter” — “Greens” are such DOPES!
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Okay, John, we’re all dying to know… WHAT DID A-TH-Y WIN? #[:)]
“follow the money trail… ” —>—–> to???
Anthony Watts says:
May 28, 2013 at 4:54 pm
“@John sure no problem.
Not sure what you mean about Zero Hedge, was there some sort of contest?”
Most likely in the comment sections of this piece.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-27/worried-about-global-warming-then-end-fed-and-other-thought-experiments
though reading through zerohedge comment sections are a chain mail or better required.
“… they would need more than just a passenger car; at the very least, a light truck and a delivery van.” [D. Marshall at 5:02] LOL (I realize I’m taking your remark out of context, but, for a moment, my brain translated it this way…) …… to carry the extra batteries needed to go much of anywhere! (And those vehicles would have to be fueled by gasoline, or MORE delivery vans and more TRUCKS and …. electric cars are just not ready for prime time).
If they designed a battery car that allowed you to swap in and out batteries faster than you could fill a fuel tank they’d be laughing. Imagine you ruck up at the Battery Station, like the good old days you get drive way service, the young ‘mechanic’ pops the hood quickly unhooks the easy fit battery pulls it out and goes and sticks it in the giant charge room, then brings back a freshly charged one and drops it straight in. $10 flat change over fee, in an out in less than a petrol refill. But to reach this level of battery technology we are still years away. Plus the car manufacturer’s have to be able to price the system to come with a spare battery as well for less than the price of a normal small car. $10,000 all up for a 2 battery car and they’d finally have something that would actually be successful.
Now, now. Electric is the future… just not the present.
Anthony, here is the article:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-27/worried-about-global-warming-then-end-fed-and-
other-thought-experiments
Here are the last words (comments at this time).
Lumberjack
I am going to have the last word on this Flak, and many more article’s to come based on FACT (I do my work elsewhere but will gladly share it here). Re-hypothecating physics (among other things) is a fools errand.
http://dailybail.com/home/why-wind-power-wont-work.html
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Tue, 05/28/2013 – 18:14 | 3605387Flakmeister
My what nice piece of horseshit, here is a rejoinder:
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/12/the-grid-of-2030-all-renewable-90-percent-of-the-time/
and the orginal paper if you can even understand is here:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378775312014759
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Tue, 05/28/2013 – 20:19 | 3605674Lumberjack
My late uncle went to a small post office to pick up his mail on a cold January day in a tiny town in the northeast many years ago. Back then, that is where you found out about about your business before you did. The tiny wood framed building was filled with people engaged in ‘small talk’. When he entered, there were so many people inside that the door wouldn’t close. Feeling the beeze, the Postmaster yelled “hey Martin, were you raised in a barn”? To which my uncle replied ” as a matter of fact I was, because every time I’m here, I turn around and see a horses ass”.
Respectfully and sincerely yours,
john
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You had a few mentions here in the comments. Your work has not gone by un-noticed by the financial community.
There’s a dark horse in this alternative-fuel race that is coming on strong in the US, where natural gas is low-priced: cars and trucks powered by natural gas. Here are two recent articles:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1458181-natural-gas-the-fastest-growing-transportation-fuel-in-the-u-s
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1448901-clean-energy-fuels-the-important-cng-lng-distinction-and-what-it-means-for-investors
archonix says:
May 28, 2013 at 2:18 pm
@dodgy geezer If it requires subsidy it isn’t capitalism
temp says:
May 28, 2013 at 4:23 pm
In capitalism the government can’t give out subsidies… subsidies is socialism
Did I really need a /sarc for that? The point I was trying to make was that clever and unprincipled businessmen are ‘farming’ the government and the green establishment for subsidies, in the same way that an oilman might drill for oil. The company doesn’t ‘need subsidies to make cars’ – instead the cars are the excuse for the company to mine subsidies. And very successfully. I think that you will find that the eventual profit the directors of these companies makes compares favorably to what they could have made in other manufacturing enterprises.
Shame about the shop-floor workers and the unpaid suppliers, though…
From the linked article, “Better Place offered an elegant solution. The vast majority of travelers who commute short distances could plug in their cars at home or work each day to keep their batteries recharged. For longer distances, customers could stop at the swapping stations, remove their used battery and replace it with a fully charged one in a matter of minutes.”
Can someone tell me just what is elegant about having a major component of the vehicle swapped out at a gas station then somehow warehoused on site and replenished? Can you imagine swapping out a gas tank every time you went to fill up? It was always a stupid idea.
“If they designed a battery car that allowed you to swap in and out batteries faster than you could fill a fuel tank they’d be laughing.”
Here are just a few of the reasons why it won’t work:
1. Batteries are not standardised. They’re unlikely to be standardised, because they have to fit into the vehicle and different vehicles need different types of battery (e.g. an electric pickup will want a much bigger battery than an electric Smart car).
2. Batteries need cooling, so it’s not just a matter of sliding the empty one out and the new one back in.
3. Batteries are heavy, so it’s not just a matter of two guys lifting one out and dropping in the replacement.
4. Batteries wear out. That battery that has a 200 mile range when new might claim to be 50% full after a hundred miles and then drop to zero by a hundred and twenty once it’s been in service for a few years..
5. Batteries wear out. You go to a dealership, buy a $50,000 car with a brand new $30,000 battery and… drive to a battery swap station where you replace it with one that’s done 100,000 miles.
6. Batteries suck in cold weather. Good luck getting anything like the full range at -40 with the heating on.
7. Even if you can get a new battery quickly, the old one has to be recharged before another person can use it. So there’ll have to be quite a few batteries charging in the back of the station at any time or they won’t have enough charged ones to swap in.
I doubt you’ll ever solve #1, because car manufacturers won’t want to compromise their vehicle so other manufacturers can use the same batteries. I can’t see any way to solve #5 other than to lease the batteries rather than buy them, but that further restricts the number of places you can go to swap them.