From articles in the New York Times to one of 2nd Green Revolution’s earliest posts and the recent “Planet Forward” special, Israeli-American entrepreneur Shai Agassi has been seen pushing his vision of an electric car future. Mr. Agassi, a former software engineer at SAP, plans to build a network of charging stations and locations where drivers can quickly (in under five minutes) swap out their car’s run down batteries for fresh ones.

Better Place, Mr. Agassi’s company, is based out of Israel and has test sites in Denmark and Hawaii as well. According to a recent New York Times article, Mr. Agassi realized early on that the major obstacle to the mass adoption of electric cars was, and still is, the issue of “refueling”. The article points out that refueling a car with electricity is economically viable. “Powering a car by electricity — even relatively expensive ‘clean’ energy like wind or solar — costs far less than powering it by gasoline. The Tesla all-electric sedan, for example, uses about 1 cent of electricity per mile. A comparable gasoline car uses 16 cents of gasoline per mile.” In the following TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) speech Mr. Agassi explains his vision for an all electric car future.

French car maker Renault has agreed to make nine models compatible with Better Place’s battery system. The first vehicle is scheduled to hit showrooms in two years. According to Mr. Agassi’s TED speech, cars emit 2.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, 25% of the world’s emissions. Mr. Agassi’s plan includes producing all the electricity required to charge the batteries from photovoltaic arrays or wind farms.

Mr. Agassi’s goal is nothing short of zero oil consumption. This will be no easy task. The infrastructure is already in place to refuel gasoline powered internal combustion engines, while there is no network for recharging cars. In addition, oil derived fuels such as diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel have an incredibly high energy density, are easy to transport, and appear to be relatively plentiful. If Mr. Agassi successfully implements a national and international recharging network, he will have negated one of gasoline’s major advantages: quick and easy access. A national electric car “refueling” infrastructure that cuts out non-renewable oil consumption and the accompanying combustion-related pollutants like carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter may truly make the world a “better place.”

- Eric Wilson