Israel wants to become the first home of the electric car under an ambitious partnership involving the government and major carmakers to establish a viable market for the emerging new-generation of clean vehicles.
The Israeli government will offer tax concessions over the next decade on zero-emissions electric cars to be supplied by Renault and Nissan to the local market from 2011. Importantly, Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi’s Project Better Place has announced plans to construct 500,000 electric car recharge points around the country to underpin the market.
The Israeli ‘Electric Recharge Grid’ would be the forerunner of a $200 million investment in an international network of recharging stations, the Project says, a pre-condition for the mass marketing of electric vehicles.
One of the big obstacles to the mass use of cars running on alternative power sources is the time lag between the availability of a new fuel technology, such as hydrogen or electricity, and the establishment of a supply network. It would be many years before a network could be established as localised and convenient as the millions of gas stations around the world serving vehicles with fossil-fuel-run engines.
And for electric cars in particular, battery technology must improve significantly to offer power storage that will deliver driving range comparable to a tank of petrol or diesel.
But Israel is seen as the ideal starting place for the electric car revolution – where petrol is $6 a gallon, energy security is crucial and the country has a small land area. The average journey in the Jewish state is shorter than in most other industrialised countries and the range limitations of battery-run cars are not as problematic.
Renault says its electric cars will be powered by lithium-ion batteries made by Nissan and NEC and deliver similar performance to a 1.6-litre petrol engine. Onboard satellite navigation systems will point drivers to the nearest recharge outlet.
Last week, the head of General Motors told the Detroit motor show that a switch from petrol to electric cars was inevitable. GM’s first electric car, the Volt, is due in 2010.
Business Wire 21/1/08
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