Watch Out Better Place, Coulomb Muscles Into Israel

May 10, 2010

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldal isn’t ready to say the world is a Better Place.

Coulomb Technologies appears to have struck a deal to install electric car charging stations in Tel Aviv.

In a blow to Better Place’s dream of turning Israel into its private battery-swapping, electric-car market place, Huldal appears to have signed a deal with company rival Coulomb Technologies.

Coulomb is to install 50 electric-car charging stations in Israel’s capital city Tel Aviv by next year. The reason: the city doesn’t want electric car recharging to become a monopoly, according to a report on Yedioth’s Ynet Web site.

The news appears to put an end to Better Place’s hope that it alone would become Israel’s supplier of electric car charging services. The company has a deal with Tel Aviv and with other Israel municipalities to begin commercial operations next year. By the second half of 2011, company partner, Renault, will begin shipping 1,000 cars a month into Israel.

To be sure the cars will be used, Better Place has signed up 92 commercial fleets – including those from Computer Associates and Motorola. It also enlisted gas station operator Dor Alon to installed battery-swapping stations.

The Better Place business model is to lease lithium ion batteries to car owners and swap them for fresh ones when they are depleted. It also will contract to supply electricity to car owners both at home and on the go. The company plans to install dozens of charging stations in Tel Aviv and elsewhere in the country.

Better Place has its sties on markets in Denmark, California, China and Japan in addition to Israel.

A spokesperson from Coulomb did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

On a separate note, Better Place on Monday closed the $350 million in venture financing it announced in January. The massive round values the company at a hefty $1.25 billion.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Israel Is Do Or Die Test For Better Place

February 8, 2010

The high profile electric car experiment Batter Place made a big deal this weekend of the ceremonial opening of its demonstration center in Israel.

Better Place opened a demonstration center in Israel in an old oil tank

“We come another step closer to realizing the vision of sustainable electric transportation,” said Moshe Kaplinsky, CEO of the company’s Israel division.

He was wrong. The important step for the company will come late next year when it kicks off commercial operations in the small Mediterranean nation, its first market.

The demonstration center tells the story of how Better Place works. The company is essentially a power broker, selling electricity to people who plug their cars into charging stations and swapping depleted car batteries for fresh ones at changing stations.

This weekend’s most critical news was that the company has signed up 92 corporate fleets in Israel – including Motorola and Computer Associates and struck what it said was its first deal with a gas station operator for charging stations.

The fleet owners promise to buy some vehicles from Better Place partner Renault – which will begin shipping 1,000 cars a month into Israel in the second half of 2011.

The gas station operator, Dor Alon, became the first to agreed to construct battery-switching stations at its facilities in the country. Better Place expects more deals with gas station operators.

The Israel test is perhaps the best chance for the California start-up, which last month raised $350 million in funds. Israel is tiny, making electric cars with their limited driving range more practical. Running out of juice is more difficult when distances are short. What’s more, big corporate fleets make up about half the cars on the roads. These big vehicle operators will make managing the cars easier.

All this makes Israel a must-do for the company. If the system doesn’t work smoothly there, it will have greater difficulties in Denmark, California and Japan, markets that are next in Better Place’s sights.

Israel is indeed a demonstration center and Better Place must perform.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Better Place Ready To Demo Japanese Charging Station And Ignite Build Out In Israel

April 23, 2009

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

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 Places headquarters

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.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Israeli VCs Also See Pain As Downturn Sharply Lowers Fundraising

April 8, 2009

Israel is an active place for entrepreneurs. But if venture-capital fundraising is an indication, the pace of building new companies will slow.

Projections say funds in Israel will raise only $300 million this year

Projections say funds in Israel will raise only $300 million this year

Venture funds in Israel raised just $793 million in 2008, down 30 percent from a year earlier when $1.14 billion went to firms in the country.

Estimates are for another sharp drop this year. Projections show only $300 million will be raised because of the economic climate.

VCs still have $1 billion to put into new companies. The question is what will happen when this runs out. Firms may choose to keep a tight grip on their money until signs of an upswing appear.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

US Venture Capitalists Pour More Money Overseas

February 18, 2009

The United States remains the primary destination for investments from domestic venture firms.

But 2008 saw these partners and general partners continue to place more money overseas as the industry follows the general economy and globalizes.

China investments were up 50% last year

China investments were up 50% last year

According to Dow Jones VentureSource, U.S. VCs increased their investing overseas by 5 percent last year, putting more than $13.4 billion to work in deals in Europe, Israel, China and India.

That represented about 32 percent of the money they spent. (Domestic startups got $28.8 billion, VentureSource says.)

The growth was particularly strong in energy investing, which accounted for more than 10 percent of overseas dollars. In Europe, for instance, energy startups attracted 89 percent more money than in 2007, or $816 million.

In China, VCs set a record by investing $4.2 billion last year, up 50 percent. Information technology startups got a significant share –$1.6 billion.

Investment growth was slower in India, where $864 million went into 80 deals, a 3 percent increase.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Startup Better Place Unveils $1 Billion Network Of Electric-Car Recharging Stations For California

November 22, 2008

Ambitious green-tech startup Better Place kicked off an effort this week to build a $1 billion network of electric-car charging stations in California, a first step in bringing its electric-car vision to the country.

The Palo Alto startup, guided by former SAP executive Shai Agassi, said the construction of the network of battery-charging stations would begin in the San Francisco Bay area in 2010.

A prototype of the Better Place electric car

A prototype of the Better Place electric car

Motorists would be able to stop at the stations to have their removable car batteries swapped out for charged ones. The batteries are estimated to permit about 40 miles of driving.

Agassi, at a press conference with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, said he believes the stations will be ready to support the mass production of electric cars in the U.S. in 2012. Already, Better Place is building networks for recharging electric-cars in Israel and Denmark, and it is targeting Australia.

“We need to start thinking of this as the next generation of the car,” said Agassi. “We’re going to bring in car 2.0.”

The initial California network would have 100 to 200 stations for swapping batteries and 250,000 small charging facilities for drivers to plug in.

The three mayors said they would work to make their cities the electric-car manufacturing capital of the U.S. The use of electric cars will help reduce the accumulation of greenhouse gases leading to global warming.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

The Downturn Will Claim 50% Of Car Companies, Says Upstart Electric Auto Exec. Shai Agassi

November 7, 2008
Car companies need big bets, Shai Agassi says

Car companies need big bets, Shai Agassi says

The intensity of the current economic downturn will claim 50 percent of automakers, said Shai Agassi, founder of the electric car company Better Place.

Twelve months from now, there will be half as many automobile companies as today, Agassi said Friday during an on-stage interview at the Web 2.0 Summit.

The question is which of them comes up with a better business model for an age of higher gas prices and global warming, he said.

“Car companies need to make big bets,” he said. “Small bets are not going to make it.”

Agassi says he has talked with Detroit car makers about a business relationship, but didn’t elaborate. Better Place hopes drivers will pay by the mile to use its cars, replacing batteries at charging stations as they travel.

So far Renault-Nissan has agreed to make nine models and Agassi has first targeted markets in Israel and Denmark, where taxing are increasing the cost of gas-powered cars.

“We’ve got to a point today where Detroit knows it needs to change

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Posted by Mark Boslet

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