This past December at the bi-annual Electric Drive Transportation Association summit in Washington DC we had the opportunity to hear Shai Agassi speak about his company, A Better Place. His charismatic words painted a beautiful picture in our minds about what the future of sustainable transportation could look like. Cars that are part of the Better Place family are full electric vehicles that have swappable battery packs (much like China used for its busing system during the 2008 Beijing Olympic games).
Instead of going to gas stations and filling up on oil as people do today, A Better Place customers will hot swap batteries at Better Place garages around town. Additionally, there may also be simple charging rods allowing customers to top off low batteries that don’t require a full swap. Shai is well liked and highly respected worldwide, which makes this article tough to manage because we’re about to poke some holes in the concept. Maybe there really can be a better place… but is it a model that will work on a global scale, or even in the top major cities? We don’t think so, at least not in its current form.
Just as there are certain countries around the world that run on Diesel and use Metric there are still others that prefer Petrol and the Imperial System. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t all be using the Metric system these days, but you get my point… I’ll cut to the chase, A Better Place may work in small tightly knit countries like Israel which is fully on board with the plan, but countries like the US or even states like California which are vastly spread out and not fully committed to one format or another will be a challenge.
Lets face it, aside from the politics and timing, it is much harder to create a network of battery swap stations than it is to simply put in chargers as you would parking meters. It is also very difficult to modify cars to have quickly changeable batteries, especially if you’re not working directly with auto manufacturers (or are one yourself). These two ideas are really at odds, chargers and swapping. Not only does swapping require a vast infrastructure of “Jiffy Lube” type shops fully equipped to trade in batteries, it requires specially designed cars that are actually capable of hot swapping. It’s like the format wars of DVD vs. Blue Ray, how will A Better Place get auto manufacturers to agree on similar battery pack sizes or even similar technology? Furthermore, how will anyone be able to lift the batteries on a regular basis (which weight upwards of 700lbs in current gen EV’s such as the Tesla Roadster) without wasting energy on the swap process itself.
If A Better Place can’t enforce some sort of standard then they will either have to stock at least one of every different battery pack on the market at a given time, limit the type of vehicles they allow in their program, or provide their own packs and then adapt them to existing cars (which will be very expensive). The only benefits we see to the swap stations are that the packs are much faster to change out than charge and can be recharged during off peak hours (during the night). Additionally, the batteries can be maintained, repaired, and upgraded for consumers more easily if they are maintained by a company. There is also the benefit (if you consider it one) of maintaining “mini mart” stations and jobs that might otherwise fall off the map. Shai Agassi is shown below along side a simplified Better Place Charging pole.
So aside from infrastructure, what other challenges might A Better Place face in the US and locations outside of Israel? For one, their attempt at creating chargers (for those who want to top off a battery instead of swap) may be too simplistic. For a system of chargers to really work they need to integrate with the grid and major power suppliers and frankly, be open to many different cars and people who might be willing to pay to charge their “old world” or competing EV’s. Anyone who has visited San Francisco for example, knows that parking is a real challenge. There is no way to block people with gasoline cars or those who might be driving older or non-Better Place EV’s from taking up spots. And yet, crowded cities are exactly the type of place that will need EV’s and chargers. If a charging station goes in, it had better be flexible and format neutral. Secondly, we believe A Better Place may reach the US too late to really create a compelling offer for consumers who have already begun adopting plugins such the Prius conversion, Mini Cooper Plugin, and other vehicles available as early as next year 2010. A Better Place has only just begun installations in Israel and is speculating on the 2012 time frame. Wile they have raised nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, they can only move so fast and today in the US other companies are already installing working chargers. Unless A Better Place is secretly creating a specialty line of cars with each of the leading auto manufacturers, we doubt they will be able to squeeze in last minute with a limited offer and really dominate the market.
So where does this leave us? Some people need EV1 style paddle chargers, others have created their own EV’s with the help of fabrication shops while still others are converting their Prius’ into plugins for a cool $10K at shops like Pat’s Garage in San Francisco. The newest industry standard is called SAE J1772 (pictured above) and it is capable of charging twice as fast as current gen 110V outlets. The J1772 will be the standard for Chevy’s Volt, the Nissan Leaf and other main stream full electric vehicles but hasn’t been put into use quite yet. [update, these are now going in on Coulomb's ChargeStations and GE's Watt Stations around the country]
The solution to the Electric Vehicle charging challenge may be exactly what we see happening right now all over the US, there really aren’t any chickens or eggs… just hybrids and old fashioned chargers. Call it scrambled chicken if you like. Once plugins gain a bit more support and people begin demanding faster charging options, either A Better Place will roll in and deploy battery swap stations overnight along with cars capable of doing hot swaps, or a new generation of faster chargers that work with old world technology will begin popping up around town. Either way, we’ll all be living in a better place and we’re happy to see someone working on an innovative solution.
