Shai Agassi: Israel will have 100,000 electric cars in 2 years
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, European Union
Update: The Globes article has been removed and Shai has posted an entry to his blog denying this rumor.
Globes is reporting that Shai Agassi, Project Better Place CEO, said Israel will have 100,000 electric cars by 2010. Shai said this at an annual Ministry of Finance budget department meeting speech where he talked about the benefits of electric cars like improved quality of life. Here is Agassi on realizing the potential of electric cars:
If we wait for an unknown science at some university, we might miss the date. ... We must create fourth-generation high-tech. we need to create a new foundation that will give us an advantage and that will last for 15 years. We cannot compete against India in size or demography.
Previously, Shai has said that Better Place's goal is to get 100,000 cars on the road in 2010 but he has never given specifics like location before.
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[Source: Globes and tipster Zohar]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-17-2007 @ 3:21PM
steven said...
can you fix that jump URL?
Reply
12-17-2007 @ 3:58PM
Kardax said...
Building 100,000 of anything that has more than two parts is extremely difficult. Doing it in 2 years seems impossible.
Reply
12-17-2007 @ 4:01PM
Zohar said...
someone had misteriously wiped off the article from the website...
here's the title from the article, before it was gone:
Shai Agassi: Israel will have 100,000 electric cars by 2010
"We must create fourth-generation high-tech, a new foundation that will last for 15 years."
Reply
12-17-2007 @ 6:11PM
Auto IT said...
I'm not sure that Better Place's proposed battery swapping is really 4th-generation technology. Mercedes-Benz had prototypes using exactly this idea in large scale testing all of 35 years ago. However, that is long enough ago that Agassi will not have to worry that the Germans have the tech patented - they'd have expired by now.
See: http://www.auto-it.co.uk/2007/12/mercedes-battery-swapping-is-so-last.html
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12-17-2007 @ 6:39PM
Andrew said...
It was all a rumor after he spoke to the Israel Treasury! Here is the quote from Shai Aggassi's Blog
"Rumors about location
Today I have given a speech in Israel at the treasury department. After the presentation a rumor circulated by an anonymous tipster that I named a location and a number of vehicles by 2010. That rumor has been published in the Israeli press, only to be taken off the web within a few hours. The rumor is unfounded and I have not said the words attributed to me.
WE have announced a certain policy at the launch:
1. We will not declare a location, countries will declare their support of our framework
2. We will not declare car makers, they will declare car models.
We stick to that policy.
shai"
http://shaiagassi.typepad.com/the_long_tailpipe/2007/12/rumors-about-lo.html
Reply
12-17-2007 @ 6:56PM
Domenick said...
@Andrew:
Thanks for clearing that up. Of course, faithful ABG readers are already aware of one country. http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/11/06/denmarks-ambitious-plans-for-ev-motoring-around-the-country/
No firm commitments from Renault, er, any car manufacturers yet.
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12-17-2007 @ 8:07PM
Robert Kirsten said...
Why is this article still up then? If the premise is completely false it would seem a better idea to take the post down or ammend it before the jump.
Reply
12-17-2007 @ 10:24PM
Lascelles Linton said...
Thanks you everyone for your comments! I have updated the article.
Reply