Do You Know About Shai Agassi’s Vision for Electric Vehicles?

[Image Credit: Autoblog]

Shai Agassi is someone who has taken a vision and is seeing it through to reality on a very large scale. He is working to make electric vehicles (EVs) a reality for many people in many nations. Shai founded Better Place to develop a complete solution to making battery electric vehicles a practical transportation option. Better place ‘aims to reduce global dependency on petroleum through the creation of a market-based transportation infrastructure that supports electric vehicles, providing consumers with a cheaper, cleaner, sustainable, personal transportation alternative’.

There are many obstacles standing in the way of widespread adoption of EVs, and Better Place seems to be addressing all of them head on. One of their solutions is a quick, automated system for switching out depleted batteries with fresh ones, sort of like refueling for EVs. Better Place demonstrated this system in Japan yesterday. Better place has also proposed a new ownership model for batteries to help improve the affordability and practicality of EVs. Better Place has partnered with the Renault-Nissan Alliance; Renault and Nissan are developing the vehicles, and Better Place is addressing infrastructure. Momentum is building, and agreements are being made worldwide to deploy this system. There are even a few agreements in the U.S. You can hear more from Shai by watching his inspiring TED video below, or by checking out his blog.