One Kansas City-based startup is pitching a swappable-battery product for plug-in vehicles that harkens back to the dearly-departed company known as Better Place. Except the batteries are on a smaller scale. And, so far, the funding is a lot smaller as well.
Verd2Go has taken to the Indiegogo crowdfunding site to tout its patent-pending technology. The concept essentially involves a rack of lithium-ion batteries that is attached to a charging system and can be removed a single battery at a time for particular uses. The smaller batteries could be used for mobile phones. The larger ones? That's were the plug-in vehicles come in.
Under the Verd2Go system, potential users would be able to look up where batteries may be available, "request and reserve cells," and stash and plug in the batteries in the back of their cars. The campaign was launched just a few days ago and had raised $443 as of early-afternoon Friday. The goal is to raise the remainder of the requested $100,000 within the next six weeks. Those curious can take a look at some grainy animated footage of the process below.
We thought the battery-swapping concept for plug-in vehicles had come and gone with Better Place. That company was founded in 2007 with a plan to offer battery-swapping Renault electric vehicles. While the company did sell almost 1,000 EVs, it also lost more than $800 million before going bankrupt in 2013. At last sighting, Better Place's assets were being acquired out of bankruptcy by a company called Sunrise for about $12 million.
Verd2Go has taken to the Indiegogo crowdfunding site to tout its patent-pending technology. The concept essentially involves a rack of lithium-ion batteries that is attached to a charging system and can be removed a single battery at a time for particular uses. The smaller batteries could be used for mobile phones. The larger ones? That's were the plug-in vehicles come in.
Under the Verd2Go system, potential users would be able to look up where batteries may be available, "request and reserve cells," and stash and plug in the batteries in the back of their cars. The campaign was launched just a few days ago and had raised $443 as of early-afternoon Friday. The goal is to raise the remainder of the requested $100,000 within the next six weeks. Those curious can take a look at some grainy animated footage of the process below.
We thought the battery-swapping concept for plug-in vehicles had come and gone with Better Place. That company was founded in 2007 with a plan to offer battery-swapping Renault electric vehicles. While the company did sell almost 1,000 EVs, it also lost more than $800 million before going bankrupt in 2013. At last sighting, Better Place's assets were being acquired out of bankruptcy by a company called Sunrise for about $12 million.
via GIPHY
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