New Electric Car Company Changes the World

Forget about the hybrid auto — Shai Agassi says it’s electric cars or bust if we want to impact emissions. His company, Better Place, has a radical plan to take entire countries oil-free by 2020.

Source

Electric cars have been kicking around the clean-energy conversation for decades, but they've been held back by short battery life and limited range... Tech visionary Shai Agassi thinks he's got a solution - and sees zero-emission cars hitting Main Streets in just two years.

Source

Very cool to see that they already have the cars and technology in place and are field testing it. Don't buy a gas car!

I think we are on the verge of a technological explosion. We will realize that as fast as electric cars come out...new technologies will be brought to light.

I am very much in favour of the electric car, so don't get what I am about to say wrong: Shai Agassi is a corporate minded controling sort of person, what he basically wants is that people buy their cars and lease the batteries. Not only that but he wants to setup a charging infrastructure all over the world to replace and charge these battery packs. It's proposterous, because the need for this is very muchdebateable, as battery packs are getting better every trimester and people should own their own energy and charge their car wherever, it's just electricity. Some sort of fast charge infrastructure would be nice, but for 95% of trips overnight or parking lot charge is perfectly adequate. There is no reason for what he proposes other than control and money leeching. It's basically just wealth supression, an attempt to keep the goyim slaves to their masters via artificial scarcity.

A better place... if you're a corporate croney.

You want electric cars then here you go. This is by far the cutting edge of electric car companies. The range and charge time are very impressive. The sports coup's performance specs are just insane for an electric car.

Tesla Motor Company

reply to post by WarmthofSunlight


I think you failed to understand what he wants.

He clearly states that he wants no monopoly because if there is one it will simply create the same problem we have today with gas and auto industry (amongst other things).

One of the videos on his website explains it all clearly.

He wants global open standards so the cars and batteries work everywhere.

He also explains that most people will never need to exchange their batteries because they recharge by themselves.

Exchanging your battery is for long trips and most people will not need this.
So he charges a small fee to change the battery, so what, it is a service just like buying gas but better for the environment. Also his batteries get re-used and recycled once they are no longer good.

More about Shai Agassi (and lots of other interesting talks) can be found at

TED

Shai Agassi

(High Quality mp4 videos can be found at TED)

Originally posted by warrenb
reply to post by WarmthofSunlight

 

I think you failed to understand what he wants.

He clearly states that he wants no monopoly because if there is one it will simply create the same problem we have today with gas and auto industry (amongst other things).

One of the videos on his website explains it all clearly.

He wants global open standards so the cars and batteries work everywhere.

He also explains that most people will never need to exchange their batteries because they recharge by themselves.

Exchanging your battery is for long trips and most people will not need this.
So he charges a small fee to change the battery, so what, it is a service just like buying gas but better for the environment. Also his batteries get re-used and recycled once they are no longer good.

If that's true I would retract my criticism. But unless I am mystaken he wants a battery lease model, where people buy the car and lease the batteries, which is absurd.

I have seen his TED talk and other presentations, and if I am mystaken I apologise, but I still have the impression he wants to seperate ownership of the batteries from ownership of the car so as to have a point of revenue and control.

I'm ok with a battery swap per fee, perhaps even a subscription, but there must be personal ownership in the equation or we're just losing more freedoms. What if a company choses not to renew a lease? You take the bus? What if the bus dosen't accept your thumb print? This is the trend I'm seeing, perhaps I'm just paranoid or perhaps they're really out to get us.

reply to post by WarmthofSunlight


you would prefer to pay for gas than lease a battery, that is your choice but in the end you are still paying for it, so I fail to see the problem...

reply to post by warrenb


Impressive!!

The guy might just be able to pull it off because nobody realized at this point that electricity still comes from fossil fuels!!

I still advocate for solar cars with regenerative energy management system = full-sized SUVs that never needs refueling/recharging!

..And the 'nanobat' is fast coming into a practical prototype - basically a capacitor with nano-thin dielectric and plate layers, fully recharges in seconds, lasts as long as any modern battery, can be recharged xxx times without loss in performance, and very efficient. Makes it the perfect battery for regenerative systems.

[edit on 5-5-2009 by ahnggk]

Until electricity is completely powered by non fossil fuels then electric cars are nothing more than a waste of time and money.

Here's a couple of youtube vids from a show called topgear.

These guys are always quite frank about the opinions on cars.

Tesla roadster:




Honda FCX Clarity:




Which one will take the car into the future I wonder??


Oh yeah, until hydrogen technology becomes viable to the average car buyer people should convert their gas guzzler to Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG).

Around half the price of petrol = saving money
Higher octane rating = better performance
Plus a decent system will give you the same economy as a normal petrol car.

And it's cheaper, cleaner and more abundant than oil.

Originally posted by Chadwickus
Oh yeah, until hydrogen technology becomes viable to the average car buyer people should convert their gas guzzler to Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG).

Well, hydrogen still comes from fossil fuel, because you need electricity to split water into hyrdrogen and oxygen. And where most electricity comes from? Fossil fuels, yay!!

Unless I'm missing something about a new method of economically harvesting hydrogen without using electricity.

reply to post by ahnggk


Well the tech is still in it's infancy, well at least the publicly known tech is.

It could be likened to the first petrol engines I guess.

Originally posted by Chadwickus
reply to post by ahnggk

 

Well the tech is still in it's infancy, well at least the publicly known tech is.

It could be likened to the first petrol engines I guess.

Not very much, normal car engines could actually run on hydrogen without any modification. The only problem with hydrogen is storage.

There's also much debate whether it's more efficient to just directly use electricity for electric cars or use electricity to make hydrogen and power hydrogen cars.

I would think the former would be more efficient. But until we are using 'free electricity' electric vehicles aren't very promising atm. What I meant by free electricity, like solar, wind, hydro power, etc, not to mean overunity or free energy

My vote still goes to solar vehicles with capacitor/battery-based regenerative system. Because having to stop to refuel or recharge doesn't look very appealing to me and never will no matter how cool it may look.

Propane is nice, my work truck runs on propane, I get it delivered to my house, and if one company starts jacking up the price, then I just call another, and they seem to be competitive with each other. Thing is, isn't propane a by-product of making gasoline?
So, electricity is cool, but here in western united states the most reliable form of electricity is from hydro power, but they want to tear them down so the fish don't have to climb fish ladders, so we are stuck trying to make due with windmills, wich are nice when they are new, but they do require a lot of maintenance, and now the same people that said we can't have hydro power because of the fish, say we can't have wind because of birds.
And THERE IS NO WAY anyone is letting us get more nuke plants...so, its still back to fossil fuels again isn't it.

Can I have an electric car powered by a miny nuke reacter, just for me? I promise I won't let any one borrow my car!

reply to post by Xcouncil=wisdom


You have a good reason there to use e-cars. Nukes, no, they never looked nice even worse at civilian hands. But they could come handy for certain experimenters..

On the other hand, I have an idea for solar-electric regenerative car with a retractable wind turbine... The wind turbine gets hoisted up only when car is parked, not when moving to recharge batteries together with solar energy...

Thanks for mentioning that windmill I also got that idea from Yachts