As attentions turn to electric vehicles (EVs) in the race to
clean up the world’s roads, Renault-Nissan has achieved
something of a coup. Under the leadership of Carlos
Ghosn, this French-Japanese alliance has
teamed up with Silicon Valley start-up
Project Better Place in what is starting to look
like the world’s most comprehensive and
inspired electric car programme.
In doing so, Renault-Nissan thinks it has
solved several of the issues that thwart other
would-be EV makers. Renault will design
and build the vehicles and Nissan – through
its joint venture with Japanese electronics
specialist NEC – is working on the battery
pack. The development of a suitable battery is
one of the biggest hurdles in this programme
still to be overcome. Project Better Place will
construct and operate an electric recharge grid
in those countries or cities that sign up to the
programme. This means that, unlike its rivals,
Renault-Nissan does not face the prospect of
launching its EVs in markets where there is
no widespread public recharging network.
“Renault could not have done this by
itself,” says Jerome Perrin, director of
advanced environmental projects at the
French carmaker. “We would have had to
install the plug-in networks, negotiate with
the utility companies for a special tariff, and
take care of the servicing and maintenance of
the batteries. This is all part of the business
model offered by Project Better Place.”
The programme’s first deployment was
announced earlier this year in Israel – also the
birthplace of Project Better Place founder and
CEO Shai Agassi. Until March 2007, 38-year-old
Agassi was president of the product and
technology group at SAP AG and was widely
regarded as the next CEO of the German
software giant. Little did Agassi know, two
years previously, when he was asked to
write a White Paper on the future of energy,
transportation and the environment as part
of his role as a Young Global Leader for the
World Economic Forum, that this would lead
to such a radical career change.
Israel’s geo-political motives for wanting
to end its dependency on oil need little
explanation. At the time of announcing its
involvement in this project, Israeli President
Shimon Peres hailed the electric car as the
country’s new weapon against the threat of
terrorism from its Middle Eastern oil-rich
neighbours. “We are not going to fight the
producers of oil. But we are going to introduce
alternatives.”
In addition to Agassi’s links with the
country, there are other reasons why Israel is
well suited to this initiative: ninety per cent
of Israelis drive less than 70km per day and
its biggest cities are all less than 150km apart,
making it an ideal test bed for early generation
EVs that could still have significant range
issues; Israel is like a transportation island
– cars sold there rarely get moved to another
country; its cities suffer badly from smog and
other forms of air pollution; and the amount
of sunshine it is blessed with makes solar generated
power, as a back-up to the primarily
coal-fired electricity grid, a no-brainer.
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