Australia backs recharging network for electric cars

By John Reed in London
Published: October 22 2008 23:33

Australia is set to become the latest country to test the market for the viability of electric vehicles, with an A$1bn ($676m) project to build a large-scale recharging infrastructure.
Macquarie Capital Group is planning to raise the money for Better Place, a US venture capital-backed company that builds charging points and battery-swap stations for plug-in vehicles in Israel and Denmark.

AGL Energy will pledge to add enough energy capacity from renewable sources to power the cars. The project will be one of the largest roll-outs of its kind to date.
Renault-Nissan, General Motors, and other carmakers are launching plug-in vehicles from 2010, but industry analysts say they will need widely available recharging infrastructure to be commercially viable.
EDF earlier this month announced agreements with Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroën to develop car-recharging infrastructure in France.
Shai Agassi, Better Place’s chief executive, told the Financial Times the Australian project would be about five times the size of the network it plans to build in Israel.
There, the company is building 350,000 to 500,000 recharging points for electric cars and 125 swap stations where motorists can exchange depleted batteries without having to wait to recharge.
In Australia, the company will begin building recharging points along the country’s densely populated east coast, later moving to Perth in western Australia. The project has the backing of the government of the state of Victoria.
Better Place, which has a business partnership with the Renault-Nissan alliance, says it expects electric cars to be available in Australia by the 2012 model year.
Australia’s government has an A$500m green car innovation fund, which Better Place said gave a “compelling case” for carmakers to build electric cars there.
General Motors’ Holden brand, Ford Motor, and Toyota already make conventional cars in Australia.
Better Place likens itself to the early mobile phone operators, who built the infrastructure which enabled a new technology to gain mass consumer acceptance.
However, some rival carmakers have expressed scepticism about allowing an outside company like Better Place own the battery pack swap stations.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008