With the continuous hike of gas prices and serious campaign to lessen and stop the proliferation and increase of carbon dioxide emissions, numerous alternatives are being introduced like solar cars, alternative fueled vehicles, and electric vehicles.
There are several car makers that had announced that they are going to include electric vehicles on their line up like BMW, Audi, Mitsubishi and Subaru. Now, Renault revealed in Tel Aviv last Sunday their Project Better Place. Renault promises to manufacture “a range of electric vehicles” starting with a sedan. The said Project Better Place of Renault was just a sample with a cobbled-together battery. Renault is serious about leading the rising Electric Vehicle market especially in America. The said French automaker is even ready to spend as much as $1 billion in creating EVs. Carlos Ghosn, company CEO, said that Nissan (own by Renault) will also offer an electric vehicle in California in 2010.
One of the purposes of major automakers in developing EVs is to meet the recently approved law in California. They hope to build 7,500 zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2014. Aside from that, Ghosn said that Renault and Nissan are devoted to become a global leader in creating affordable electric cars.
A deal with Project Better Place was signed by Renault and Nissan last January to bring EVs to Israel. The cars will be made by Renault and Project Better Place will install 500,000 charging stations and 150 battery trade stores all over Israel.
In Tel Aviv, the silver sedan was unveiled which looks like it is based on the Megane sedan. As far as the technical specs of the car are concerned, Renault has not been saying much but surely the car will do 0 to 60 in eight seconds. Shai Agassi, founder of Project Better Place, said that the list price will be the same as the gasoline-generated cars but the actual price will be far less after tax breaks.
The cars will utilize lithium-ion batteries made by Nissan together with NEC. 400 pounds is the weight of the batteries and Renault declared that they will develop a range of about 125 miles. They also plan to produce several EVs on the road in Israel within a year. Further, Agassi said that they plan to use solar energy produced in the Negev Desert to control the vehicles.
$200 million is raised by Project Better Place to finance the said project. Also the Israeli government promised huge tax breaks for electric cars.
With several partners, Renault will certainly be helped in raising the “range of electric vehicles”. Ghosn said that he considers EVs as the most important development within the auto industry and Israel is an ideal place to launch such car because it is a small country where people make short trips. Moreover, he expects the first electric Nissan to be available in the market to armadas in 2010 and to mass-market in 2012.
