Canberra starting point of electric vehicle recharge network

Better Place Australia, the electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure and services provider, has announced that it has chosen the nation’s capital, Canberra, as the site of its first city-wide rollout of electric vehicle infrastructure in Australia.

The decision was announced by Better Place founder and Chief Executive Officer, Shai Agassi, with Evan Thornley, head of Better Place Australia and Michael Costello, Chief Executive Officer of ActewAGL, the ACT’s electricity retailer and distributor.

“Canberra is a great city to start deploying our vision of zero-emissions mobility. Canberra has a mobile population that demands a viable alternative to allow for both short commutes and longer trips,” said Mr Agassi. “There’s proven demand for EVs in Australia and the people of Canberra are ready for a more sustainable future. That future is electric.”

The initial rollout will involve an investment by Better Place, which will go towards building out the infrastructure, services and systems to support the first several hundred electric vehicles in Canberra. The investment will cover:

• safe and completely recyclable lithium-ion batteries that will power the electric vehicles and be provided as part of the service to drivers, reducing the up-front costs of purchasing an electric vehicle;
• charge spots in homes, offices, shopping centres and other car parks where drivers can plug-in to keep their battery fully charged; and
• Battery swap stations where motorists can simply drive in and have a depleted battery automatically exchanged for a fresh, fully charged one.

“We aim to start construction on our charge spots and battery swap stations in 2011 and start supporting customers in 2012,” said Thornley. “From Canberra we will then begin to rollout across the whole country.”

Better Place will work closely with ActewAGL to plan the infrastructure deployment. “A significant influence on our decision to choose Canberra was the enthusiasm and support we have received from Michael Costello and his team at ActewAGL,” said Thornley.

ActewAGL will be responsible for sourcing and distributing the renewable energy that Better Place will use to power its electric vehicles within the ACT. “It’s important that we work together closely so that we can be sure we have the right levels of power available in the car parks and similar locations where the electric vehicles will be charging,” said Costello. “But this is a great opportunity for Canberra to make a huge dent on its greenhouse gas emissions, so we’re very keen to cooperate to help make it a reality.”

For further information on Better Place’s plans for Australia please visit www.betterplace.com.