Used Better Place EVs sold at steep discount in Israel

Half-off on electric vehicles that can go about three-quarters range on a single charge? That's more or less what the new owner of Better Place's battery-switching and EV-charging network in Israel is proposing for a bunch of Renault Fluence Z.E. vehicles that it has to get off of its hands. Gnrgy, which now owns the used cars as well as the network (car-importer Carasso Motors and Renault bought the new vehicles), is offering the used Renaults for between $14,000 and $17,000. That's about a 50-percent discount, Israeli publication Haaretz says. Those 55 used cars, which have an average of about 55,000 miles on their odometers, can go about 62 miles on a single-charge, or a little less than the 75-to-90-mile range typical EVs can go. The caveat is that the promise of battery-swapping functionality is gone.

Better Place burned through about $850 million in five years before going out of business in May, and some Israeli and Danish customers have said the implosion has set back EV-adoption efforts far enough to more than offset any good that the company may have done. Israel's Yosef Abramowitz (aka solar advocate "Captain Sunshine") and EV Net Group were both said to be buying Better Place earlier this year before those deals fell through.

By the way, Carasso and Renault are going to be selling the unused vehicles earmarked for the Better Place network. But about half of those have taken on rust after being stored a little too close to the Mediterranean Sea. Ugh.