Sites to Refuel Electric Cars Gain a Big Dose of Funds
Jan 27, 2010 – Nelson D. Schwartz reports in The New York Times about the new round of funding for “Better Place, the closely watched start-up that hopes to create vast networks of charge spots to power electric cars, is set to receive a vote of confidence on Monday, in the form of $350 million in new venture capital. “We’ve demonstrated that our network is deployable,” said Shai Agassi, of Better Place. Although Better Place will most likely require billions more in financing, this investment is an important step for the company and its chief, Shai Agassi, an Israeli-American software executive who founded the company in 2007.
Better Place is scheduled to make its commercial debut in 2011 in Israel and Denmark, but HSBC’s investment could ease doubts about its complicated — and expensive — answer to the longstanding chicken-and-egg problem of getting electric cars on the road without the infrastructure to support long-distance driving.
“It could be a game-changer in its sector the way Google and Microsoft were in theirs,” said Anthony Bernbaum, global head of special opportunities for HSBC. Before that happens, though, Better Place and its backers will have to persuade consumers to move away from the internal-combustion engines that characterized motor vehicles for more than a century, while also winning the support of major automakers.
Even with the new funds, that is a tall order. So far, only Renault has publicly endorsed Better Place’s plan, agreeing to supply cars with easy-to-swap batteries and working closely with the company to reach its 2011 commercial debut.
See the original article in The New York Times.
