Project Better Place taking heat on its home turf

Better Place is headquartered in Israel and the battery-swapping EV enterprise has been held up as an example of that nation's high-tech capabilities. So, seeing the company take a beating in an Israeli newspaper may seem surprising. But that's just what journalist Dan Rabinowitz did in Haaretz:

Better Place's electric car network was supposed to bring us glad tidings of an innovative high technology that would preserve the atmosphere and the environment, redeem us from our dependence on oil and, above all, save us money.

But it is very doubtful that the electric car will indeed reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in Israel. And now that the full costs and the technical specifications have been revealed, there are equally serious questions about how much consumers will save.

According to Rabinowitz, the economics of Better Place don't work out for Israeli consumers or for Israeli tax payers. Instead, he calls the company's plans a "gimmick" whose only real value as a company is what it generates from the "monopoly it received from the state on building and operating charging stations." Ouch. It the company really more intent on scamming shekels from Israeli EV owners than it is on swapping batteries? At least one person seems to think so. Do you?

[Source: Haaretz]