Shubh Space

Shai Agassi, ex-President of SAP AG (PTG) spoke at a lecture series organized by NDN in his capacity as the founder and CEO of his company Better Place. He spoke about Project Better Place, a developmental initiative of Technologies that would make the use of Electric vehicles a viable solution for everyday transportation needs.

Highlights of his speech:

• Setting up a grid of charging stations across the region, where electric car owners can drive in and plug their cars to electric receptacles to charge-up their batteries and then drive off.
• Separating the ownership of the cars from the ownership of the batteries it uses, making it possible to swap these batteries at designated location in case one is unable to wait long enough for the batteries to charge up.
• Shifting to a completely electricity driven mode of transportation will need just an additional 6% increase in a country’s electricity production that could be generated through clean practices.
• Convenient methods of billing user for the charging sessions, quite akin to that currently being used by cellphone services.

Better Place has tied up with Israel to setup the required infrastructure and run a pilot project to test the feasibility of the project. The cars to be used for this project will be built by the Renault-Nissan alliance company. Israel aims to rid itself of its dependence on oil by 2019.

You may view his speech here [approx 25 minutes long]

Godspeed