Now we can think that recent relative “black out” from the mass media is actually the sign that the company can be actually taken very seriously by its competitors.

For our Lithium investment ideas “better place” approach is actually can be the game changer – you need to have more Lithium batteries than the actual fleet of cars in order to keep the stock at the battery switching stations.

Shai Agassi gives us real insight into his business model, Auto and Oil businesses. We think that he was more relaxed at this event then with his usual interviews. As a result we have this brilliant piece of insight into the real economics of Electric Cars, Auto and Oil industry. Please notice his remarks about China and Electric Cars and he talks about our iPod moment in Electric Cars as well!

Shai Agassi has pledged his own future to the “better place” instead of the CEO place at SAP – we will consider that it was the first wave of the real brain power transition into the future Trillion business of Electric Cars. Once it will be taken by Silicon Valley guys for real – we will have our Next Big Thing in action.

5 Comments on "Lithium Drive: Shai Agassi on Green Transport in the 21st Century – Electric Cars"

DC on Mon, 2nd May 2011 3:56 am 



Better place has gotten a lot of attention for what is, imo, all the wrong reasons. While his desire to see clean(er) electric transportation is laudable, the reason people like him so much is that what really promotes, at the end of the day, is business as usual.

What better place is saying is, you can keep your suburbs, your factory\prison school system, your wall-marts, your long distant commutes on oil-soaked highways, driveing half a mile to get a cup of coffee from a starbucks, all of it. You can have it all, and better place will the means to do it. Aggasi simply sees ICE cars as a source of pollution, which is true enough. What he does not talk about, is the problems created by personal car-owernship. People(maericans mostly) get so fixated on the arbitrary cost of gas, they see that as the begginng and end of ‘the problem’.

The real issue, one that better place or indeed any EV advocate wont talk about, is the even greater set of problems created by cars themselves. So as noble as Better Place, BP for short(heh), idea may be, We will never fix the problems created by 1 billion ICE cars by replaceing them with 1 billion EVs.

PS lithium batteries are not game-changers. If anything, lithium is a status-quo maintainer in EV terms. Its a complex, costly and expensive battery chemistry that cannot be recycled and is designed to fail within a few years, regardless of care given to it. Thats why the Li-on battery in your laptop has a limited shelf-life. Its designed to wear out and be expensive to replace. The idea being, your buy a new laptop anyway. Lithium car batteries are a perfect example of designed-to-fail, with a sort-of-green high-tech gloss to it.

James on Mon, 2nd May 2011 6:54 am 



Lithium batteries will have a replacement cost of at least 1/3 to 1/2 of the cost of a new car. Also, we are still trying to rob other countries of their natural resources which they will need too. Lithium is being mined in parts of South America, which is fast becoming a country that wishes not to support our lifestyle. Mr. Chavez made sure that we don’t get his oil like we used to anymore. The same will happen in all of South America. The initial purchasing price of the car, plus the replacement costs of the batteries will be very high for the middle class and lower class to afford. These batteries also have a history of developing short circuits and over heating which may cause fires in the vehicles. No matter how long you charge these batteries, you will never get the equivalent mileage from a charge when compared to a gasoline powered car. 8 Hours charge time for either 40 miles or 125 miles depending who the manufacturer is. Right now Japan is the leader in the development and manufacturer of these vehicles. Japan is in the middle of a nuclear crisis which may render the whole country uninhabitable sooner or later.

Rick on Mon, 2nd May 2011 9:08 am 



Peak Oil means no cars. And BTW, forget cars, people need to eat. No oil, people don’t eat.

BillT on Mon, 2nd May 2011 4:44 pm 



Pie in the sky…not possible in any real numbers. When people finally realize that there is no magic bullet to let them keep their wasteful, slothful lifestyles (Americans) it will be too late for most of them to downgrade gracefully. It will be a painful rehab for most.

I live in a 3rd world country now and am slowly downsizing my needs to the basics. Eventually…5 -10 years, I expect to be back to the 1800s level of living. And I will only be in my 70s…

Sufiy on Mon, 2nd May 2011 7:32 pm 



Watch the best recent video on Peak Oil:

http://sufiy.blogspot.com/2011/04/abc-catalyst-peak-oil-report-tnrv-czxv.html