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May 21, 2019 · May 21, 2019. It has been six years since the pioneering electric-vehicle startup Better Place collapsed so spectacularly after burning through $800 million of investors’ money. But the electric-car concept never died and is now undergoing a revival in Israel.
Aug 31, 2017 · That was the aim of one of Israel’s most inspirational startups, Better Place, which set out to build a nationwide infrastructure to support 100-percent electric cars. While Better Place went ...
- Battery Switching Might Sound Familiar
- Can This Be A Business? Can Ample Succeed Where Tesla and Better Place Stumbled?
- What About The Founding Team?
- Back to The Business at Hand: The Business
- What Does The Future Hold For Battery Swapping?
- Is This The Next Cleantech Success Story?
Back in 2013, Tesla built a battery-swapping station before ultimately shuttering the program in 2016. Tesla’s pilot implementation was a little kludgy — it was designed as a temporary fix where car owners were required to come back and get their original battery back later (and pay $80 for the privilege). Well before that, Shai Agassi launched Bet...
First, let’s take a look at the backers. This round was led by Shell Ventures and Moore Strategic Ventures, with Repsol Energy Ventures, Hemi Ventures, and Trirec also participating. Shell has a long history of making investments in cleantech and transportation deals and has lots of experience with early-stage venture investments. It’s easy to imag...
Ample founders John de Souza and Khaled Hassounah are experienced executives, and both have undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering. According to their LinkedIn profiles, they founded and led MedHelp, an online portal and community for medical advice. The details here aren’t exactly clear: MedHelp was founded in 1994, long before the duo jo...
First, we can’t ignore the similarities. Better Place founder Shai Agassi made a fortune when he sold his previous company, and then decided to enter the electric vehicles space. (And, for what it’s worth, that sounds a lot like Elon Musk too.) The initial pitch for Better Place was “an inexpensive car that anyone could buy.” It would be so cheap, ...
Brian Blum has certainly made up his mind: “[Switching] big batteries...consumers switching them out in expensive infrastructure — that’s not going to happen, we’re not going to see that again.” And my guess is Ample won’t be getting project finance from Jigar for a Better Place clone any time soon. As he put it in the podcast, “The thing that I al...
Of course, only time will tell. With limited information on a stealth-mode startup, it’s hard to predict what will happen. We don’t know what the proprietary technology is, but Ample definitely isn’t building its own EV. Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if it licensed the Better Place patent portfolio, which is now largely owned by Renault. I hope ...
Feb 8, 2010 · Better Place Israel CEO Moshe Kaplinsky, a former deputy chief of the IDF General Staff, announced that the company had signed agreements with 92 Israeli companies that agreed to convert a...
It was an ignoble ending to what was one of the most buzzed-about startups in Israeli history. On May 26, 2013, Israeli electric car network pioneer Better Place declared bankruptcy. Yet now, even a decade later, Better Place’s impact is still being felt. One could even say that Better Place put electrification of vehicles […]
Feb 9, 2010 · If all goes as planned, 1,000 electric cars will hit the roads each month starting in 2011, Better Place said, serviced by 70 to 100 battery service stations and thousands of charge spots.
Jan 22, 2008 · According to Project Better Place, electric cars are well-suited to Israel because 90 percent of Israeli car owners drive less than 43.5 miles (70 kilometers) a day and major urban centers are ...
