Transition Island Blog

A Renault-Nissan alliance is likely to invest $500 million to $1 billion in developing swappable-battery electric cars.

In Israel, most of its oil comes from Russia, so the country is very aware of its oil-dependency.

Research shows that two thirds of the public have a positive opinion of electric cars.1.2 million households own cars and 210,000 (over 5%) would consider purchasing an electric car.

Moshe Kaplinsky, CEO of Better Place Israel, said “We are not operating in a climate of indifference. The Israeli public is interested in what we are doing”.

A few dozen cars will be available in Israel later in 2008, mainly for demonstration.

A new lithium-ion battery pack has been developed, weighing about 200 kg, compared to existing storage batteries which are more like 500 kg (which is half a tonne!). They will have a range of 160 to 200 km before needing to be recharged or swapped.

Israel will develop more than 500,000 charging spots, including at the homes and offices of its clients, and hundreds of battery exchange stations.

Battery develpments

Progress has meant that efficiency has increase to 60 to 68 percent efficiency (compared to 30 to 40 percent for conventional batteries); they can be 30 to 50 percent smaller and lighter; and they use significantly less lead then typical lead-acid batteries and are therefore more environmentally friendly.

Air alternative

We reported on the air-driven car developments in February.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 9:52 am and is filed under Eco-News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.