Better Place Strikes Deal with Ontario

An electric vehicle infrastructure venture company, Better Place, will be setting up a head office for Canada in Ontario.

Ontario, the largest vehicle producing state or province in North America, will in turn conduct a comprehensive study, which will look at:

* ways to speed up the introduction and adoption of electric vehicles
* possibility of preferred access to roadways for electric vehicles
* giving incentives for purchasing electric vehicles (evs)
* enabling accelerated government fleet conversion to evs
* providing public education on the topic

The study is scheduled for release in May 2009. At the same time, Better Place (BP) will be developing an electric car charging network plan and timeline.

Better Place's business model calls for something similar to the cell phone model.

i.e. - instead of just plugging in to any outlet whenever you want, you not only have to use BP's exclusive outlets, you will also have to pay a monthly bill. Anyone who gets a monthly phone bill is already familiar with the creative bogus add-ons and line items that this implies...

“With today’s announcement, Ontario is taking a system-wide approach to retooling its economy for growth and environmental leadership,” said Shai Agassi, BP's founder and CEO. “Our partnership will move Ontario toward a new era in personal transportation – from the current Car 1.0 model centered on the internal combustion engine to a Car 2.0 model of electric cars powered by renewable energy. This announcement is the all-important first step in an expected electric car charging network rollout for Canada, and we look forward to working in partnership with the Ontario government on it.”

How much room is there for different electric car charging projects in Canada?

To what extent does this announcement imply potential monopoly down the road?

How will this project impact other EV projects in the works?

Will there still be a possibility of other electric cars that you can simply plug into the grid anywhere?

BP justifies using an exclusive green electricity provider (Bullfrog Power) because grid electric power would hardly be any greener than gasoline in Ontario. OK but what about other provinces where electricity is already emission free? How does this fit with an "electric car charging network rollout for Canada"?

Good questions - let's get them answered before this new concept rolls out of the showroom...

In any event, kudos to Ontario for doing something!