Shai Agassi's Electric Car Networks Make The World A Better Place

Shai Agassi is turning heads with his ideas about electric car networks, especially in Denmark.

Home to a worldwide summit on climate change in early December, Denmark is setting a global example in creating clean power, storing it, and using it responsibly. The country's reliance on wind power to produce electricity without contributing to global warming is well known, but now they're looking to drive the point home with electric cars. To do this, they've partnered with Agassi and his company.

Founder and CEO of electric vehicle services provider Better Place, Agassi is focused on one of this century’s biggest challenges, moving the world from oil-based to sustainable transportation. Working with government leaders, auto manufacturers, energy companies and others to make his vision—zero-emission vehicles powered by electricity from renewable sources—a reality in countries around the globe, Agassi recently appeared on a PBS television special and on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report.

“We build networks that charge the electric cars by allowing you to switch the batteries,” Agassi told Colbert. “We got the idea from kids who said they wish they had this with their toy cars. Our network will switch your battery in less than a minute, enabling you to drive longer distances."

Agassi was asked by Colbert if this is just a pipe dream and he replied “no, this is really happening. We’ll have a test network soon in Israel and in 2011 we’ll be operational in Israel and Denmark. After that we’re going into Australia and San Francisco.”

According to the Better Place website,  Agassi’s vision was inspired by a profound question posed at the World Economic Forum in 2005, “How do you make the world a better place by 2020?” With a passion for tackling large-scale challenges, Agassi sought to answer this question with a pragmatic solution to free cars from oil, reduce harmful tailpipe emissions, and usher in an era of sustainable transportation.

Agassi founded Better Place and, in 2007, officially launched the company. In 2008, Israel became the first country—and The Renault-Nissan Alliance the first carmaker—to embrace the Better Place model of building open network infrastructure to enable mass adoption of electric vehicles and delivering transportation as a sustainable service. Denmark, Australia, California, Hawaii, and Ontario have followed suit. Today, Agassi and Better Place are in discussions with many countries, carmakers and other potential partners around the globe.

Agassi’s visionary leadership with the Better Place model has been recognized widely. TIME Magazine named him to the 2009 TIME 100, the world’s 100 most influential people, and one of TIME’s “Heroes of the Environment 2008.” Fast Company placed him third on its “100 Most Creative People in Business” list. Most recently, Scientific American Magazine named him to the 2009 Scientific American 10, a select group of 10 people who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to assuring the benefits of new technologies and knowledge will accrue to humanity.

Better Place’s approach starts by explaining the “opportunity” and then providing the “solution”.

The opportunity: “A sustainable electric automotive solution is vital to economic opportunity, energy independence and a cleaner planet. Never have the prospects been better. Consumers are enthusiastic about the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) and their potential to eliminate exposure to surges in gas prices, foster new job opportunities, and reduce CO2 emissions and improve air quality. Governments are increasingly supportive as they look to stimulate weakened economies and improve trade balances. Automakers are developing an increasingly diverse range of new electric powered vehicles in hopes of revitalizing exceptionally weak consumer demand.”

The solution: “To ensure that we can confidently drive an EV anytime, anywhere, Better Place is developing and deploying EV driver services, systems and infrastructure. Subscribers and guests will have access to a network of charge spots, switch stations and systems which optimize the driving experience and minimize environmental impact and cost.”

According to an article by Helen Waters published in Business Week, in August, Better Place was awarded the prestigious, 100,000 Euro”INDEX” Design Award.

“Now, the company has decided to put its winnings toward a design competition of its own,” wrote Waters. “And to do so, it turned to BusinessWeek’s list of the World’s Best Design Schools. The challenge? To ask students from those schools to design a prototype for a next-generation, hands-free electric-car charging infrastructure. Ten finalists will be given 3,000 Euros to develop their ideas beyond a paper proposal. One final winner will receive a further 35,000 Euros to build a working prototype.”

Waters quotes Better Place spokesperson Julie Mullins in her piece. “This is much more about being able to give back and do a project that’s fun and exciting for all of us,” Mullins told Waters. “And it’s a way to give people the means and actual funding so they can do a competition like this and challenge themselves. It’s not about getting free work. “We have brilliant teams of engineers and design folks; it wasn’t about that at all. It was being able to use the 100,000 Euros we won from the Index Award and give back in a fun way that will advance our movement toward sustainable mobility.”

Image courtesy of Better Place