It is not uncommon to see Tesla Roadsters zooming along the highways between San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. You even have a supercharger station when you get to San Jose. Better Place, founded at Silicon Valley, has been oddly absent amid all the Chevy Volts, Ford Focu Electrics, and Nissan Leafs in the Bay Area.
Better Place was actually busy setting up EV charging networks in countries like Denmark and Israel. The company operates swapping stations where customers can bring their depleted batteries and get fresh ones. The company was able to provide a good coverage for electric vehicles in the island-like countries.
By next year, Better Place will do something for its home state. It will launch a whole fleet of taxis in the Bay Area that runs on switchable batteries.
The energy commission of the state approved the funding for the eTaxi program. The partnership aims to spread awareness about the green vehicles to more sectors of the society. One may not be able to afford an electric car but in California, you will be able to ride one.
The initial phase of the project will involve putting up two stations for battery switching. These will primarily serve Coda electric vehicles going around the area. Eventually around six stations will be built to serve a fleet of at least sixty taxis.
The battery swapping infrastructure is more practical for a fleet of taxis whose drivers do not have all the time in the world to wait for the battery pack to be recharged. The battery can be swapped with the installation completed in a few minutes.
Better Place is shifting to taxis and corporate fleets as it struggles after I tried to win consumers in Denmark and Israel. They also have lost around $71 million just in the third quarter for their projects in the said countries.
Mercedes-Benz unveiled the concept vehicle called F125! last month in Frankfurt and it might just be the answer to the questions of the luxury vehicle segment on what ride they can get that gives out some power but then greener, just like how every regulation in different countries ask for.
Premier John Brumby stood at Port Melbourne with Australian Roads and Ports Minister Tim Pallas and President Masahiko Takahashi of Mitsubishi Australia to welcome the arrival of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the first commercial vehicle that is fully electric. Twenty units of Mitsubishi i-MiEV rolled onto the Webb Dock East.


