Better Place: Visit Summary

This visit stood out among our other stops in Israel in part because Better Place is extremely focused on selling its concept. So, visiting the Better Place showroom outside of Tel Aviv entailed a curated sales pitch - we watched a beautifully animated video that explained the need for a game-changing concept.

While we were familiar with the basic premise, aspects of the model that were new to me include:

- As of right now, only Nissan-Renault produces cars for Better Place; however, any automaker could produce cars equipped with the Better Place battery and be part of the leasing program.

- When a person decides to buy a Better Place car, they purchase the car, but they lease the battery – this allows them to pay a lower price (about $36K) since the battery is expensive.

- Charging stations are placed throughout metropolitan areas where people would normally park their cars for a couple of hours (for example, at work, at the grocery store, and at the movies).

- Each person gets a Better Place charging station installed at their home. This station is hooked up to their electricity source as a separate outlet – they buy a subscription that pays for the electricity they use to charge their car alone. When people use more/less, fees go up/down.

- When people go on long drives, they can visit Better Places’ battery switching stations. They can figure out where these stations are through calling Better Place customer service – just a quick call away through the wireless phone in the car – the level of tech support was unexpected.

We were able to test drive the cars which was really great. Since I have owned a Prius, I wasn’t too surprised by how quiet the car was – but, I was impressed by how smooth the acceleration and overall driving experience was. The salespeople there mentioned that they’ve sold about 1,000 cars in Israel so far – and a few potential buyers were in the showroom during our visit. I got the sense that the concept was happening in Israel, although maybe for only a small slice of the market, given the extent of the mindset shift that was required and the cars are still being sold at a relatively high price. Also, when we asked one of the VC firms about Better Place, they alluded to it being a nice idea but not a real solution.