no, but it did sort of sound like that didn't it?
i am just really excited about Better Place and their battery swap technology. the best part is that they will subsidize the cars just like cell phone companies subsidize the cost of phones.
Now I sound like I'm advertising for Better Place... oh well.
By remarkable coincidence, today a coworker left a pile of WIRED magazines in the lunchroom, and one of them contained an article about Better Place. I had never heard of this before, but after reading the article and doing some Googling, I'm excited. I hope this venture works out.
Why don't I drive a hybrid already? Because they cost $5,000 to $7,000 more than a conventional car, and for that extra money I'm buying a massive battery that's a huge unknown -- how long will it last, what will happen to my driving ability as it loses charge, how much is it going to cost me to replace years down the road?
Better Place proposes that the battery is not going to be my concern at all -- it will be owned by the grid operator. That means it's not my responsibility to buy the battery in the first place -- so the cost of the electric car is very comparable to the gas one -- and I won't have to worry about long-term usage either, because I'll be swapping my battery for other batteries over the life of the car. I'll let the battery station take care of those details -- a win for them, too, because they can take their time to charge the batteries using green technologies like solar and wind, they can replace failing cells, and over time as battery technologies improve, they can replace old packs with newer technology. It's a lot like buying propane for your BBQ -- you swap out your empty tank for a full one, and you don't worry about the tank itself, just the energy stored within it.
The company proposes to sell subscription packages just like cell phones. You pay for miles like you pay for minutes -- in theory they could do monthly, pay-as-you-go, unlimited flat rate -- and they propose that it will be a lot cheaper than gas in the long run. This also opens up the possibility of carrier subsidies -- maybe your electric car is free if you subscribe to the unlimited miles plan!
Obviously there is a long way to go -- in addition to getting car companies to sign on, they need thousands of station operators to build battery-swap/charge stations, they need to develop a national standard for batteries, chargers -- but they seem to be gaining headway. They also need other companies to sign on and inter-operate, just like we have multiple cell phone carriers with roaming agreements, so nobody feels like they're buying into a single proprietary system that would be useless if one carrier fails.
Would I pay less up front, for a greener car, and then sign onto a subscription plan that costs me less to operate than what I'm paying now for gas? Assuming the infrastructure was in place to let me go 90% of wherever I need to go, heck yes! I could keep my existing car or take public transit for those remote/obscure places that wouldn't be reachable by an electric charging grid.
(not a marketing guy, either... just fascinated with this possibility!)
