The New Zealand Emissions Trading scheme, which has included the transport sector ahead of other EU countries could take advantage of radical new plans put forward by Shai Agassi, an Israeli who has developed an audacious plan to put electric cars on the road in Israel and Denmark.  New Zealand a small nation could easily adopt a similar plan.

In early June, Israeli President Simon Peres, told Wired’s Daniel Roth that Israel was going to declare complete energy independence and the Better Place rollout in partnership with Renault developed by Shai Agassi was part of that solution.

Agassi has made bold statements in his interview with Wired magazine 9^th of September O8, that the solution to oil consuming, C02 consuming cars was to get rid of them. He states, that, “the internal combustion engine had to be retired. The future is in electric cars.

He has come up with a strategy for deploying electric cars, rather than an innovation technologically to improve battery performance. Essentially the problem of batteries is the same as it ever was, he said “”Car batteries are still heavy and expensive, don’t last long, and take forever to recharge”.

Agassi, has developed a strategic plan for deployment that uses software, networks and mobile phone style plans for re-charging electric cars using a network of distribution points thereby solving the problem of battery life.

Shai Agassi was Head of Products at SAP, the world’s largest maker of enterprise software, Agassi came into SAP, when SAP bought a small-business software company he started with his father. He is now the CEO of Better Place. The experience at SAP in IT software has led to the innovation at Better Place a Climate Change IT technology crossover, which is happening more frequently in carbon solutions. It is intriguing.

Agassi dealt with the battery issue as part of the solution.

“Previous approaches relied on a traditional manufacturing formula: We make the cars, you buy them. Agassi re-imagined the entire automotive ecosystem by proposing a new concept he called the Electric Recharge Grid Operator. It was an unorthodox mash-up of the automotive and mobile phone industries. Instead of gas stations on every corner, the ERGO would blanket a country with a network of “smart” charge spots. Drivers could plug in anywhere, anytime, and would subscribe to a specific plan-unlimited miles, a maximum number of miles each month, or pay as you go-all for less than the equivalent cost for gas. They’d buy their car from the operator, who would offer steep discounts, perhaps even give the cars away. The profit would come from selling electricity-the minutes”.

“There would be plugs in homes, offices, shopping malls. And when customers couldn’t wait to “fill up,” they’d go to battery exchange stations where they would pull into car-wash-like sheds, and in a few minutes, a hydraulic lift would swap the depleted battery with a fresh one. Drivers wouldn’t pay a penny extra: The ERGO would own the battery”. Agassi stated.

His video of his plans is attached.

New Zealand could also take advantage of other plans being developed around existing hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius by Australian companies. See www.Greentomatocars.net