Shai Agassi speaks about converting entire countries to electric transportation. Part 1 of 3

Shai Agassi, founder and CEO of Better Place, his company is working on creating sustainable transportation systems. Hes teamed up with Renault-Nissans Carlos Ghosn to transform Israel into an electric car Mecca and hes working with other governments around the world to forge public/private partnerships that will tackle the transportation side of climate change You can follow his ambitious plans on his blog, The Long Tailpipe.

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[bannor99]

Better Place puts a clause in their contracts that X amount of solar or wind has to be added to the local grid - Israel is increasing solar, Australia is upping # of wind turbines. Denmark was an exception as wind already makes up a very significant %age of their electric mix

[mrpitv]

@bannor99 Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

[mrpitv]

Electric cars will be part of the mix. There are problems with how the electricity is produced and there are enormous problems related to sourcing the lithium for advanced batteries and the costs to produce the power. But maybe we can shave several hundred billion off the defense dept. budget and give this technology a boost.

[mrpitv]

I have to agree that gasoline gives us the most bang for the buck and it's incredible energy punch is unequaled but it's just a problem on so many levels that we have to move on to other means of propulsion. But it's more than just a question of the motor and tailpipe it's about rethinking how our cities are configured and how we live.

[mrpitv]

He is amazing. He shows we need a public/private partnership to get the fossilized oil companies out of the way so we can kick our addiction to fossil fuels. thanks for watching.

[bannor99]

@no1saphead I did hear him say that for solar thermal ( not PV ) you need a reflecting panel roughly the size of the car ( I imagine the weight can make a considerable difference )

[bannor99]

@3089280288 I've not heard Agassi address larger vehicles but there are an increasing number of diesel-electric buses and other large trucks and there are plans to use more powerful ( but harder to handle ) batteries such as Sodium-sulfur - these have good power density but, at 300 Centigrade, are deemed to be too hot for small vehicles.

[3089280288]

What is his solution for trucks and other oversize vehicles? A whole country with no oil? I don't think so. Over 2000 products are made from oil. Even if you reduced the amount of oil used it would not reduce use down to 0.

[Leobons]

@no1saphead Get a life!

[TheSwedechris]

How will the oil lobby try to make this not work?

[no1saphead]

still it sounds to good to be true.Have you ever charged a car battery with a solar cell. Better opt for the big one.

[shmudi1]

He said on many ocassions that all the energy for the electric cars will come from renewable sources: solar and wind.

[MoDa87]

better place only uses 0 carbon energy. no carbon produced for this technology! google: better place!!