Electric Cars in Israel - Better Place

John,
We did have battery switching electric cars in Israel for a couple of years until the company that built the system, Better Place, collapsed in the largest private bankruptcy in Israeli history. Something like $850m in VC funding disappeared.
This is a first person video I made of one of the earliest battery switches for a customer: What Is It Like Having A Battery Inserted Where The Sun Doesn’t Shine?
This is a video I made summing things up at the end: WATCH: And Now The End Is Near
In buying the car we all had to have a private parking spot and the company installed a private charging station at our homes. The battery switching was only for long trips. I can’t understand anybody who’d own an EV without having a private parking spot with their own charge station. Shared lots are a disaster.
I had the car. When it worked it was fantastic. After the battery switching stations stopped working I carried on using the car for about 2.5 years until finally getting rid of it last year when the range had dropped to 80km. When brand new the battery was giving about 130km (design capacity was 160km). The batteries and cars were from Renault but functionally similar to the Nissan Leaf. The batteries didn’t have any water cooling system (Tesla does) and they have performed very poorly in Israel’s hot climate hence 50% degradation in 5 years. Charing LiON batteries to full in hot conditions wrecks them.
In the end, after a class action legal threat that never got near court, Renault’s importer gave some of us a decent amount of cash back for the car and scrapped it. I’m driving a Hyundai Ioniq hybrid and I love it. After filling up its very small gas tank (45l or less than 12 US Gal) my car tells me I have 1001km range.
Huge amount of info here: Better Place.
This is a really good podcast from Israel on the rise and fall of Better Place (I’m in it): Israel Story on Better Place.
Best wishes from Israel and thank you for your courage.
Brian
Sir Brian of London