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An ironic place to test electric vehicles: Inside an old oil tank in Israel

By | February 8, 2010, 5:14am PST

Summary: Better Place flips the switch on its first electric vehicle demo and testing facility in Israel.

Better Place, the electric vehicle proponent helmed by charismatic former SAP executive Shai Agassi, has flipped the switch on its first demonstration facility — which was constructed inside an old oil tank at the Pi Glilot Site site in Israel. Pi Glilot is apparently one of the last oil and gas distribution facilities in the country; Better Place is trying to buddy up with existing gas station networks to help make charging stations more ubiquitous, which it believes will fuel the adoption of electric and electric hybrid vehicles.

You can peek at photos of the facility at this link.

The facility is a place for the company to test its concept for electric vehicle charging stations and for corporate fleet owners to see and test the electric vehicles in action. So far, Better Place has signed up 92 different corporate fleet owners who have pledged to convert at least some of their cars over to the new electric models, which are due from Renault in 2011. The latest companies to sign on are CA and Motorola.

The facility will be open to the general public starting Feb. 14, 2010.

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Electric Vehicle, Pi Glilot, Automotive, Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Disclosure

Heather Clancy

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I am covering in my blog.

Biography

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.

Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.

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Better utilize?
Takalok Updated - 8th Feb 2010
I've yet to see a serious study that shows the total energy cost, build to disposal, of an electric car is less than a gasoline car. Most of the studies look at pieces of the equation, which skews the results.

But the only thing that would fulfill the vision of efficiency you refer to is nuclear, and given the current opposition to Toshiba / Westinghouse AP1000 in the U.S., despite its worldwide adoption, it is extremely unlikely that vision in the U.S. will come to pass.
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0 Votes
+ -
Why is it ironic?
frgough 8th Feb 2010
Oil was used to make the plastics in the car. Oil is used to power the
heavy vehicles used to transport the vehicles. Oil is burned to produce at
least some of the power to manufacture the vehicles.

Oh. Wait. That's right. Oil is from Satan and lithium is from God.
0 Votes
+ -
Ironic? Perhaps as the juxtaposition between the old and possible new .
richard233 8th Feb 2010
Oil is not going to be stopped in usage for quite some
time to come. The best these new vehicles can do for us
is to better utilize what is available by being more
efficient in the energy use as well as hopefully
reducing the overall levels of pollution released into
the environment.

If we then transition to the point where the oil of the petty dictators can be used to influence or
threaten use, so much the better.

I mean, really, would anyone give a damn about the
middle east if there was no oil there. If it had no
value they would still be a bunch of tribes
slaughtering each other for primacy. Now they just
use more sophisticated weapons and have brought the
rest of the world into the fight.
0 Votes
+ -
Better utilize?
Takalok Updated - 8th Feb 2010
I've yet to see a serious study that shows the total energy cost, build to disposal, of an electric car is less than a gasoline car. Most of the studies look at pieces of the equation, which skews the results.

But the only thing that would fulfill the vision of efficiency you refer to is nuclear, and given the current opposition to Toshiba / Westinghouse AP1000 in the U.S., despite its worldwide adoption, it is extremely unlikely that vision in the U.S. will come to pass.

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