Will be "Better Place" a better place for me?

[ydnas7]

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000846772" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"If the replacement stations stop operating, drivers will be limited to a range of 120 kilometers," said one Better Place customer.

 

[cwerdna]

ABG: Yet another Better Place sale falls through; Iceland's NLE ready to buy
http://green.autoblog.com/2013/10/09/yet-another-better-place-sale-falls-through-now-icelands-nle-r/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[cwerdna]

Hundreds of Remaining Better Place Cars End As Scrap:
http://insideevs.com/hundreds-of-remaining-better-place-cars-ends-as-scrap/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[cwerdna]

I just stumbled across this from April 2014.

A Broken Place: The Spectacular Failure Of The Startup That Was Going To Change The World
http://www.fastcompany.com/3028159/a-broken-place-better-place" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's quite long and I've only skimmed the first part of it. It mentions the $500K stations ended up costing $2 million/each.

 

[TimLee]

Interesting.
A company established by a person with narcissistic personality disorder receives nearly one billion dollars of investments, delivers 1,400 cars, and is bankrupt in six years.
Over $700,000 per car.
Amazing.

Of course they did build several of the forty planned battery swap stations that cost $2,000,000 each compared to their plan of $500,000 each.

Free cars, just pay for the service.
As stupid as the cell phone business model which fortunately is slowly crumbling.

 

[EVDRIVER]

Did not see this coming the very first day this silly concept was announced and the company was formed :lol: Can't believe it took this long actually.

 

[TimLee]

Still surprised Tesla is heading down the battery swapping path :shock:
They need to figure out how to do it a lot cheaper than Better Place did.
They do plan to charge for the service.
Whether what they need to charge to cover their costs is something Tesla owners will pay is another big uncertainty.

 

[mwalsh]

Still surprised Tesla is heading down the battery swapping path :shock:
They need to figure out how to do it a lot cheaper than Better Place did.
They do plan to charge for the service.
Whether what they need to charge to cover their costs is something Tesla owners will pay is another big uncertainty.

Hell, one believable analysis says that they aren't even charging enough to sustain supercharging. I can only surmise (expect even) that they won't charge enough for battery swapping too.

 

[TomT]

Elon says it will be about the cost of a tank of Premium gas on a luxury car... But you do eventually have to come back and reclaim your original battery...

Hell, one believable analysis says that they aren't even charging enough to sustain supercharging. I can only surmise (expect even) that they won't charge enough for battery swapping too.

 

[TimLee]

...one believable analysis says that they aren't even charging enough to sustain supercharging.

That would not be surprising.

Clearly the non-Tesla charging networks do not appear sustainable.
Tesla is at least including some cost in the vehicle up front to attempt to pay for it.

Market will not support that in LEAF cost class. And if the network charges enough to cover it's costs, most don't use it because they can mostly charge at home.

Maybe when the # of electric vehicles gets large enough convenience stores and others will be willing to do it at cost like they do with gasoline.

But may be quite a few years away.