AutoblogGreen

Don't think PBP is a good thing!

EV's should be about low running costs. They require little maintenance and recharging your batteries should be cheap. PBP's goal is to stop this dream from coming true. It want's you to engage in an expensive monthly payment scheme. You don't get to own your batteries but you have to rent current technology batteries which provide limited range so you will be dependend on the recharging grid PBP supplies too. For this service they will make you pay dearly too. As long as EEstor style miracle storage devices are not available it's wiser to buy Chevy Volt style PHEV's that have no need for an expensive recharging grid involving a cumbersome battery swapping scheme.

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* 1. Don't think PBP is a good thing! *

I disagree, unless the PBP infrastructure is proprietary and will only work with cars under their plan. Without government or a company fronting the money for the necessary charging network, EVs will only be useful to a select group, largely in rural and suburban housing.

PBP is planning to install 500,000 charging points and a smaller number of battery transfer stations in Israel. Who will convert parking meters to EV charging points and install outdoor plugs in parking garages/lots and condo/apartment complexes without a PBP-like scheme?

If they get the ball rolling, it can only be a positive for the concept as a whole.

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>> EV's should be about low running costs.

Says who? For me, an EV is about sustainability as a secondary option to taking public transit. Anyways, who does financial analysis based solely on operating costs? You need to calculate the total cost of ownership that captures ALL the costs. For example, if you're taking out a $50,000 loan at 8% just so you can own your batteries, what's the cost of interest, depreciation and replacement? No one even knows the actual operating costs under PBP's business model so wouldn't it be somewhat difficult to analyze at this point?

No need to spout off inflammatory rhetoric.

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As I understand the PBP model, it is similar to the cell phone model. The longer your commitment to subscribe to the battery service, the less your new Renault electric car will cost...to the point that if you sign up for a long enough period of time, the car is almost free.

The way you should think about this proposal is it cost you so much per month to drive your car and you don't need to dink around with the fuel supply (in this case the batteries) other than plugging them in and changing them out when they age. What they are selling here is rental batteries and a charging service and they have to maintain them.

I think this model will fit many of the people in San Francisco who don't want to be concerned with the hands-on aspect of electric cars. There are those of us who might not like the model because we are more of the DIY, hands-on kind of driver. Well for us, perhaps there's a retrofit coming down the road a little later. I would like nothing better than to retrofit my little 240Z with an electric drive line and blow the nanny-filled Evos into the weeds (ha).

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