Social Venture News from Yale SOM

The clean-car promise of Better Place | Electric evangelist | The Economist.

Good article from the economist continuing to raise the profile of Better Place, Shai Agassi and their ambitious goals.  The challenges are enormous but the payoffs are even bigger if they are able to succeed.

From the critics:

“It all sounds excellent on paper, but can Mr Agassi make it work? Even during his time at SAP, critics said his grand visions were not always realised. Some sceptics say consumers will prefer to buy electric cars that plug into ordinary electric sockets than to be “locked in” to an operator of recharging points. Even if Better Place can build its networks, say others, it will not be profitable for years because the infrastructure is so expensive (its battery-swapping stations cost $500,000 each). The latest electric-car designs distribute batteries around the body to improve handling—an approach that is incompatible with Better Place’s battery-swapping stations. And won’t customers want to own, rather than borrow, the batteries in their cars?”