Israel to go EV?

[DSeid]

In a coordinated effort with the Israeli government offering significant tax incentives, Renault providing the EVs, and Shai Agassi’s Project Better Place providing the battery lease and recharge structure, Israel plans on beginning a process of becoming an EV country beginning in 2011.

the Israeli government will provide tax incentives to customers, Renault will supply the electric vehicles, and Project Better Place will construct and operate an Electric Recharge Grid across the entire country. Electric vehicles will be available for customers in 2011.

The Renault EVs will be equipped with lithium-ion batteries produced by the joint venture of Nissan Motor, NEC Corporation, and NEC TOKIN Corporation—Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC)—formed in 2007. (Earlier post.) The EVs will offer driving performance similar to a 1.6-liter gasoline engine, according to the company.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance / Project Better Place model will separate ownership of the car from the requirement to own a battery. Consumers will buy and own their car and subscribe to energy, including the use of the battery, on a basis of kilometers driven. … the total cost of ownership for the customer will be significantly lower than that of a fuel-based car over the life cycle of the vehicle, according to the partners.

The partners identify Israel as an ideal first mass market—90% of car owners drive less than 70 kilometers per day, and all major urban centers are less than 150 kilometers apart.

Will it work? Will Renault get these cars at a price point attractive outside of Israel? Will the model translate to other markets like China and India?

[Argent_Towers]

All I know is, it will save them a hell of a lot of money.

[Ale]

Sounds interesting, hopefully other small nations would follow and act as a primer for an EV industry.
I´m thinking places like Singapore or Taiwan must be keeping an eye on this.

[Noone_Special]

It could actually work here, as most of the new-car market is controlled by the leasing companies (for various reasons) – give them incentive, and you’ll get immediate, deep market penetration.

This is reliant on two things:

1. Making the monthly payments for the battery either transparent to the end-user, or translated to “at-the-pump” (at the outlet?) payments. I don’t think paying another monthly payment for the car will fly that well. This is probably the bigger issue.
2. Making the visit at the Charging Points comparable in length and hassle to a visit to the gas station. I think they’ll need far many more pre-charged “replacement” batteries than they’re planning, unless they can devise a way of charging a battery in under 15 minutes. OTOH, 500,000 charging points translates to 1 point per 5 cars or so, even if the whole fleet converts – which means curb-side nighttime charging and/or charging the car while you’re at work. I think this issue is surmountable, if they come through with the ubiquitous charging stations existing before the fleet hits the road!

Another Good Thing[sup]TM[/sup] about this idea, in Israel especially, is that it will at least give the impression of lessening our dependence on oil (which is considered important here since most people think of oil as “paying the Arabs for our oil”) – so, the psychological incentive is there.

It should be noted that this hasn’t registered much on public opinion or mass media here yet… but it’s still early. We’ll see how this plays out.