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Deutsche Bank analysts took a serious look at the proposal of Project Better Place for electric cars in Israel and Denmark and came away impressed with its viability. The researchers returned to Germany believing that the Better Place idea would work not only in small countries with extremely high automobile taxes and gasoline prices, but also in the U.S.

As reported at Solveclimate.com, their conclusion states "From checking the Project Better Place business model, we are concluding that a pure electric car should not cost any more than a diesel- or a gasoline-powered car, and in most countries its operating costs should actually be lower."

The proposal, spearheaded by Israeli-American entrepeneur Shai Agassi, envisions a financial separation of the car from its battery, lowering the initial cost of ownership. Following the cell phone model, a monthly charge would pay for the battery and electricity. The electric cars would be manufactured by automakers. Nissan-Renault has already announced it will produce electric cars for the program in Israel and Denmark.

The report not only adds financial establishment credibility to the idea, it contained some news. It suggests that five to ten additional countries will announce similar programs before the end of the year. Perhaps more significantly, it predicts two more manufacturers will announce their intention to produce electric cars to work with the Better Place model. The Israeli new website Globes was given an exclusive copy of the report which appears on the site in Hebrew only. ABG has been following Project Better place closely, most recently posting a video of CEO and Founder Shai Agassi's speech on "The Future of Electric Cars."

[Source: Solveclimate.com]