Israel Initiates Massive Electric Car Program
In one of the most aggressive national campaigns to date, Renault-Nissan has been awarded a major contract to develop electric cars for Israel. This isn’t one of those US-style campaigns that calls for a 1% increase in solar power reliance over the next 50 years; this a full on greenfest slated to impact Israel within the next three to four years. Renault already has working prototypes of their European-built electric car on the roads in Israel and public availability is scheduled for 2011. The Renault contract is part of Israel’s nation-wide initiative to significantly reduce the country’s dependency on oil and petroleum. Israel is also a perfect candidate for Renault’s relatively short-range electric cars because the country itself is so small. Israeli drivers travel an average of 43.5 miles per day and Renault’s car is reported to have a range of between 45-72 miles on a single charge. In terms of charging, Israel has enlisted California-based Project Better Place to build 500,000 charging stations throughout the country. The stations will swap out depleted batteries for fully charged replacements and will then recharge empty batteries to be swapped out again later. Of course they will not rely on conventional power sources to juice up batteries, but instead will draw from wind and solar power. Car owners will also be able to charge their NEC-built car batteries at home, which means that shorter-range drivers may rarely be bothered by having to stop at refill stations! In the event that the battery is running a bit low however, Renault’s car will notify the driver that a fresh battery is required and also point them towards the nearing charging point. Convenient and green; we’re getting there…it just isn’t on our own turf.
I love the Idea and i am really looking forward for that, I currently live in Israel so this is a great deal for us and yes its true that Israel is small and people travel most from Central Israel to the south or vice verse we could hardly reach that 45 to 72 miles,
BGR You have a great site,
Thank You
If Israel is silly enough to swallow Agassi’s braindead scheme of battery swapping, and willing to wait longer for a nearly useless battery-only electric instead of a plug-in, I suppose that means two things : 1) the Israelis will get what they deserve – the most expensive and clumsy way to get extended range on the planet, and 2)despite what people often claim, Jews obviously aren’t being driven by economics, because Agassi’s scheme is without doubt the most inefficient method conceivable
to get electric power to the wheels of a car.
Add stupid, unreliable wind and solar photovoltaic and you complete the picture of a
dimwitted idea guaranteed to produce the most expensive and inefficient transportation system on the planet. Three years from now people will wonder why tey ever bought into this obviously ego-inflating con job.
kerry beauhrt thank you for your very insightful comment. After complaining about how stupid Israel is and basically acting like a bigot against those of the Jewish faith, you used your superior knowledge and at the very least gave some examples of different approaches Israel could take to achieve their goal. Oh that’s right you didn’t! Also, the article clearly states the battery can be charged at home.
Seriously awesome idea for all thoes folks in isreal. With all the new battery technologys that i have seen and heard about they may be able to power the car’s with sugar cubes with in a few years. lol well thats an exageration, but i do support any large scale moves to reduce the amount of dependancy on oil. its not that i hate big oil but the more we Reduce the need for oil the better off everyone is. and as for electricity being the least cost efficent of the options i agree its not the cheapest but with oil prices rising the the cost of oil increasing year by year who can honestly tell me that 3 years from now electricity will still be more expensive what was it 7 maybe 8 years ago you could buy a gallon of gas for 1$ still now i jump when i see it under 3….. got to love that kind of inflation. so in 3 years just using that logic the price of gas will increase to 4$ at its low and 5+ at its highest. even in my awsomely gass efficeint kia rio thats alot of $$$$. go isreal way to set the pace. by the time you go electric i hope to go hybrid
Since the US government is virtually owned by the US oil industry (albeit strongly countered by the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby), I wouldn’t advise anyone in the US to hold their breath waiting for any serious changes anytime soon here. Just today, Exxon-Mobil posted record breaking profits yet again. Let’s face it, the world will go black and blue long before the US goes Green. The only hope is that rising powers like India follow Israel and Germany’s lead in getting serious about implementing solar and wind power to power a new generation of electric cars.
wow! kerry beauhrt, do you have some supressed anger? That was a very unconstructive comment.
Let’s not forget Denmark who is doing the same inovative EV program as Isreal. Who do think will be next to free themselves from the abuse of the middle East and the oil mogels in our own country?