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Would You Subscribe to an Electric Car Service?

by Doug on March 7, 2008

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How big is your carbon footprint?

Your carbon footprint is the sum total of the amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, or CO2, your day-to-day activites (work, recreation, transportation, home, etc.) pump into the atmosphere. Calculating your carbon footprint is a quick and easy first step

We hate buying cars. A car is an investment that immediately loses value and costs money for the rest of its life. Worse, of course from a “green” standpoint, is the damage burning fuel causes. But Silicon Valley entrepreneur Shai Agassi’s plan to create an electric car system that operates much like a cell phone service sure seems to be a viable solution. Agassi’s Project Better Place is on a mission to create a networks of charging stations, where subscribers can “fuel” up their vehicles or switch out batteries. Better still, as with a cell phone, you purchase the car and the fuel plan at the same time and pay a monthly fee. (Remember though that you are not cutting down on your carbon emissions as long as that electricity is coming from dirty sources like oil and coal plants.)

According to Wired:

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Verdier Solar VW

Somehow "green" has shed its hippy image and become hip, intelligent, even trendy. Verdier has done the same for the classic hippy ride—the VW bus. Not only does this camper look like a work of retro urban art, it's also got 2008 eco cred. The hybrid engine can run on diesel and electric. It sports a 40 watt, 12 volt solar panel. It's GPS and wireless

It’s an audacious proposal, made more so by Agassi’s plan to subsidize vehicle costs according to the length of the subscription. “If you go for four years, we’ll subsidize your car or your fuel,” he said. “If you go for six years, we’ll give you a free car.

Wired has most recently reported that after initiating the program in Israel through a partnership with Renault-Nissan, Agassi will now focus on Japan. Both are small, geographically contained  nations. Put the project in place in the U.S. will be a much more difficult undertaking.

We want to know how the plan will sell in the U.S. We certainly like it, both as a way to cut down on emissions and to cut down on the financial drain of owning a car, but we want to know what you think. Join The Conversation and give us your thoughts.

 

Posted in Cars • Investing • Travel


Thoughts

Brook wrote:
March 07, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Hmm — sounds interesting, but I’ve always been a little wary of electric cars because of the plausible “not in my backyard” attitude. The electricity has to come from somewhere. I think that’s the primary question: Is it from a clean source that isn’t damming any more rivers? Once that little detail (ha) is worked out, I’d subscribe - especially for local errands that requires a vehicle.

Amit Nisenbaum wrote:
March 08, 2008 at 8:16 am

First correction – even if the electricity is going to be generated from the current electricity production infrastructure the Well to Wheel Green House Gasses emissions will be reduced by about 40%. This is mainly due to the increased energy production efficiency in a big power plant as compared to a small combustion engine. A California Energy Commission report (CEC-600-2007-004-REV) from 8/2007 and a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency report from 3/2007 are two reports supporting this assertion.

In addition, the Project Better Place (PBP) framework calls for generation of at least part of the electricity by renewable energy sources like solar panels. True, this is not completely viable anywhere but it is providing additional environmentally friendliness to the scheme.

Finally, as all utility companies are required by law to produce excess capacity to ensure quality of service part of the plan is to charge cars during off-peak times where electricity is cheap and excess capacity is available. This means that de facto the electricity charged to the batteries during these times is completely clean as it would have been produced anyhow and “spilled” to the ground.

So if PBP will be able to pull this off technically the scheme makes lots of sense.

Beth Partin wrote:
November 06, 2008 at 10:42 am

What if the company purchased its electricity from wind power?

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