"Australia Next for Electric Car Boosters Project Better Place, Renault and Nissan" Green Car Advisor

Australia Next for Electric Car Boosters Project Better Place, Renault and Nissan

Better Place, the Johnny Appleseed of the electric vehicle movement, has selected Australia as the next country to sample its unique program of spreading EVs through private-government partnerships.

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Better Place hopes to promote widespread use of electric vehicles such as this prototype built by partners Renault and Nissan.
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Shai Agassi, the California-based organization's founder and chief executive, has executed an agreement with the Australian state of Victoria for a $676 million (U.S.) project to build electric vehicle recharging stations along the country's heavily populated east coast. The group plans to expand later to Austriali's western region, dominated by the city of Perth.

Better Place works with partners Renault and Nissan.

The carmakers have agreed to develop electric cars for the program, with rollouts to begin as early as 2012, while Better Place -- formerly called Project Better Place -- would build and own the charging stations and, in some cases, a network of battery exchange stations that would enable motorists to pull in, swap discharged battery packs for full ones and be quickly on their way.

The team also has agreements for projects in Israel and Denmark.

According to a Financial Times report Wednesday, Australia's Macquarie Capital Group is planning to raise the money for Better Place while Australia's largest gas and electricity utility, AGL Energy, will pledge to add enough energy capacity from renewable sources to power the cars.

The recharging stations also would be available to drivers of plug-in hybrids such as the Chevrolet Volt that General Motors Corp. has said will go on sale in the U.S. in late 2010, with global sales to follow.

Toyota also is expected to launch retail sales of a plug-in hybrid of its own at about the same time, although the company so far will only acknowledge plans for sales to government and commercial fleet customers.

Agassi told the Financial Times that Better Place's Australian project would be about five times the size of the network it plans to build in Israel.

In that project, the group's first with start-up targeted for 2011, Better Place Israel is building 350,000 to 500,000 recharging points for electric cars and 125 swap stations where motorists can exchange depleted batteries without having to wait to recharge.

Australia's government has a green car innovation fund of nearly $340 million (U.S.), which makes a "compelling case" for carmakers to build electric cars there, Agassi said.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor