Obama Will Adopt 14 Month Old Child From Israel

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Apart from keeping an eye on the imploding world economy, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, a Russia that is flexing its muscles, and other minor annoyances, “the incoming Obama administration is closely monitoring the innovative electric car project being developed by Israel’s Better Place company,” writes the Jerusalem Post. Idan Ofer, chairman of Better Place, says [hopes?] that Obama “may be adopting it.” Also according to Ofer “a leading US car manufacturer” is “putting together a team” to work on the project. Now who might that be? “Renault-Nissan agreed 18 months ago to build the first cars, and will be mass-producing hundreds of thousands of the electric-powered vehicles by 2010,” Ofer said to the paper. So why the need for a leading US car manufacturer? For all we know, the US car manufacturers are leading straight into C11.

Ofer doesn’t suffer from a lack of self-esteem. When “you hear announcements” from the incoming administration about reviving Detroit with electric cars, job creation in battery factories and modernizing the national electricity grid, the Better Place chairman reckons “you’ll know that it will have come from us.”

Surprisingly, the Renault-Nissan vehicles will cost about the same as conventional cars for now. Ultimately, though, allegedly, it will be cheaper. Ofer also claims they have comparable acceleration, can reach comparable speeds (of 150 to 180 kph) and can run 150-200 kilometers on a single battery. In short: Miracles on wheels.

Better Place was established 14 months ago by entrepreneur Shai Agassi. Despite the confidence, the company seems to suffer from a little bit of an identity crisis. According to Wikipedia, “Better Place is a California-based, venture-backed company that aims to reduce global dependency on petroleum through the creation of a market-based transportation infrastructure that supports electric vehicles, providing consumers with a cheaper, cleaner, sustainable, personal transportation alternative. Better Place will build its first Electric Recharge Grids in Denmark, Israel and Australia where the electricity will be generated by renewable energy.” According to their website, “Better Place is working to build an electric car network.”

So what are they? A car builder that will be adopted by Obama the minute he enters office? Or a builder of recharge stations?

The San Jose Business Journal is convinced that Better Place is in the grid business: “San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Reed announced last month to transform the Bay Area into the “Electronic Vehicle Capital of the United States.” Palo Alto-based startup Better Place, which is building electric vehicle networks powered by renewable energy, is leading the effort.”

A case of mistaken identity? Two Better places maybe, one in CA, one in Israel? Not so: both Better Places were founded by Shai Agassi. The EV business sure is wild and wooly.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • EVtransPortal EVtransPortal on Dec 21, 2008

    The problem with the battery exchange plan is that it requires vast amounts of money be spent on battery exchange stations when the technology for recharging electric vehicles while going down the road is already available, yet not commercialized. Any infrastructure investment should be adaptable to advances in technology or it will soon be obsolete. Battery exchange stations don't fit the criteria of adaptability to innovations in charge methods, or advances in battery technology. For example, here's a contactless inductive charging solution that is already patented and ready for development commercially. http://uniservices.co.nz/pageloader.aspx?page=1484d8d0d82 With charge strips embedded in the road every quarter mile or so, and at stop lights, and in parking lots, or your garage floor this method of contactless inductive energy transfer can be integrated with the smart grid and electric vehicles with existing battery technology and give electric vehicles unlimited range without the need to plug in or exchange your battery at all. Many other companies offer recharging capability for electric vehicles, you can find many other examples here http://EVtransPortal.com/cerip.html It's too early in electric vehicle development to fixate on any one solution at the present time, unless it is a solution which is adaptable to further innovations, battery swap stations will involve a huge cost to create, and don't fit the criteria of adaptability to future innovation.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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