Renault, Better Place, and the 100,000 Electric Vehicle Order
Filed Under: green automotive technology, zoomilife.com on October 17, 2009
In July, we talked about the new models that Renault has planned as electrics and hinted at a forthcoming deal that appeared imminent at that time between the car maker and Better Place. Nobody could have guessed how huge that deal would be, though. Least of all me.
The deal was announced Tuesday at the Frankfurt Auto Show by Better Place’s CEO and founder Shai Agassi. It involves some of the infrastructure plans for countries like Israel and Denmark and an earth-shattering electric vehicle purchase order for 100,000 vehicles from Renault to begin delivery in 2011. That’s not a typo: one hundred thousand units.
This couples with another order for 100,000 charging stations to be supplied by Flextronics, another of Better Place’s partners to begin installation next year in both Israel and Denmark.
We’ve talked extensively about Better Place here at Zoomilife in the past. In May, I compared Agassi to Steve Jobs of Apple and pointed out that while his moves are often grandoise, they are always followed through. Well, it looks like he’s making his next grand maneuver.
This backs up the funding and plans they did for Danish charging networks earlier this year and it solidifies the final touches on the work he began in his home country of Israel a couple of years ago.
