TechPulse 360

By now it is widely known that Better Place will show off a prototype of its electric car charging station in Yokohama, Japan, on May 13.

2010 is the massive build out for Israel, says Sidney Goodman

But what is less well known is that the company remains on track for a far more ambitious 2010 rollout in Israel, among its first big markets.

Better Place, which intends to develop a business recharging electric-car batteries, said Wednesday it hopes to have 150,000 plug-in outlets for cars in place by 2011. And it forecasts 100 battery swap-out stations also will be live the same year.

At present only 900 charging outlets have been installed and no stations built. A couple of stations are expected by the end of the year, said Sidney Goodman, vice president of automotive alliances, but the massive construction will begin next year.

Better Place is obviously a company with big dreams. The Palo Alto clean-tech enterprise wants to reduce the world’s reliance on petroleum by harnessing renewable energy to charge cars, often at off-peak times.

But to do so, it has to change the habits of drivers, and the minds of carmakers that aren’t always keen to install standardized batteries in electric cars that Better Place can then replace when they run down.

“I don’t think we’re going to have everybody” on board, says Goodman, referring to the world’s major car manufacturers.

And that may not matter as long as drivers are willing to swap batteries instead of fill their cars with gas.

An electric Nissan at Better Place's headquarters

Goodman said Yokohama will be an important demonstration for the company. Swapping a battery needs to be done in about the same time as it takes to fill a tank of gas – and Goodman says Better Place has achieved this 5-minute milestone.

The physical removal of a battery from underneath a car, “we already have down to under a minute,” he says. It will be interesting to see the process on May 13.

It also will be interesting to see what Better Place is able to show next. Someday soon, the company will release more information about the complex software it is developing to monitor battery levels and schedule appointments at the swapping stations.

To accomplish this, cars will need to sometimes communicate wirelessly with the Better Place control room – a wonderfully efficient but technically challenging task.