Better Place (company)

Better Place
Company typeVenture backed private
IndustryTransport
Founded2007
FounderShai Agassi
Defunct2013
FateBankrupt, liquidated in 2013
Headquarters
Palo Alto, California
,
United States
Key people
ProductsSubscription-based electric car charging points and battery-switching stations
Retail deliveries since 2Q 2012 in Israel
WebsiteBetterPlace.com

Better Place was a venture-backed international company that developed and sold battery charging and battery switching services for electric cars. It was formally based in Palo Alto, California, but the bulk of its planning and operations were steered from Israel, where both its founder Shai Agassi and its chief investors resided.

The company opened its first functional charging station the first week of December 2008 at Cinema City in Pi-Glilot near Tel Aviv, Israel.[1] The first customer deliveries of Renault Fluence Z.E. electric cars enabled with battery switching technology began in Israel in the second quarter of 2012,[2] and at peak in mid September 2012, there were 21 operational battery-swap stations open to the public in Israel.[3]

Better Place filed for bankruptcy in Israel in May 2013. The company's financial difficulties were caused by mismanagement, wasteful efforts to establish toeholds and run pilots in too many countries, the high investment required to develop the charging and swapping infrastructure, and a market penetration far lower than originally predicted by Shai Agassi.[4] Fewer than 1,000 Fluence Z.E. cars were deployed in Israel and around 400 units in Denmark, after spending about US$850 million in private capital.[4][5][6][7] After two failed post-bankruptcy acquisition attempts,[8][9][10] the bankruptcy receivers sold off the remaining assets in November 2013 to Gnrgy for only $450,000.[11]

  1. ^ "Japan to work with Better Place on electric vehicles". Energy Efficiency News. 2008-12-11. Archived from the original on 2009-04-29. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
  2. ^ "Early Better Place Customer On Israel Electric-Car Experience". Green Car Report. 2012-04-12. Retrieved 2012-09-13.
  3. ^ מנכ"ל בטר פלייס: "מחיר הדלק עוזר לרכב החשמלי" – וואלה! עסקים וצרכנות. 13 September 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  4. ^ a b Blum, Brian (2017). Totaled: The Billion-Dollar Crash of the Startup that Took on Big Auto, Big Oil and the World. Blue Pepper Press. ISBN 978-0-9830-4281-5.
  5. ^ "Another Clean Tech Startup Goes Down: Better Place Is Bankrupt". The Atlantic. 2013-05-26. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
  6. ^ Isabel Kershner (2013-05-26). "Israeli Venture Meant to Serve Electric Cars Is Ending Its Run". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
  7. ^ Niv Elis (2013-05-26). "Death of Better Place: Electric car co. to dissolve". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
  8. ^ Ingrid Lunden (13 July 2013). "A New Place For Better Place, As Bankrupt $800M+ Backed Electric Car Startup Sold For $12M". TechCrunch. AOL Inc. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  9. ^ Nadav Neuman (2013-08-26). "Better Place sold to Tsahi Merkur for NIS 11m". Globes. Archived from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-09-01.
  10. ^ Levy-Weinrib, Ela (October 17, 2013). "Better Place again for sale". Globes Publisher Itonut Ltd. Archived from the original on October 18, 2013.
  11. ^ "Gnrgy buys Better Place for the price of an apartment in Tel Aviv". Green Prophet. November 22, 2013.