AUG 27

Better Place, the start up that wants to bring electric car charging and battery swapping stations to the masses, has announced a partnership with Tokyo's Niho Kotsu taxi company.  The taxi fleet will be the first to go all-electric with swappable batteries.

The partners will commence on a pilot project using Better Place's infrastructure in January 2010.  The project's battery-swapping station will be located in the Roppongi Hills area of Tokyo.

Tokyo is a perfect location for this project since Japan has already proven itself as electric and hybrid car friendly.  The Prius is the number one car in the country and the Insight and iMiEV have had great success as well.  Also, other fleets have started to make the change to electric cars, including the Japan Post.  It seems the country is ready to fully embrace electric vehicles, but for that to happen, the infrastructure has to be in place.

Better Place needs this project to have positive results.  The company just revealed that batteries for its swapping stations will cost almost $12,000 each, at least for the next few years until battery production ramps up.  In order to acquire enough batteries to get their swapping stations in place, the company is going to need good press and good investers.

via Earth2Tech

Comments (4)

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written by Spell Check, August 28, 2009

I think you meant Tokyo's NIHON Kotsu taxi?

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Great Article
written by Greenearth, August 29, 2009

What a great site and article. Look forward to visiting again.

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Lost Causes
written by Uncle B, August 31, 2009

Ane here! Us dumb-ass Canadians were going to use a Nuclear Reactor to melt our Tar Sands, a bigger deposit than all of Saudi Arabia , and save the world from gasoline starvation! Now we have to buy batteries and cover up the mess in the oil sands for a few generations at least! Damned Global Warming! We ere all going to be so rich! Here's hoping we can mine Lithium for battery cars, or something! We sure need jobs up here!

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Not all Loonies loony...
written by Bob Wallace, August 31, 2009

Something smart that Canadians recently did was to ask for nuclear plant bids in which the bidding company guaranteed no cost overruns.

As we all know, past practice has been to bid low, overrun, and let the purchasing entity pay multiple times what was originally estimated. And then pass on those costs to the consumers.

The now under construction Olkiluoto, Finland nuclear plant is more than 50% more expensive than the original (non-binding) bid.

The Ontario government ask for binding bids, took a look at the cost of a plant when the construction company gave them a fixed price, and said "Nope".

That's smart....

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