Say Aloha to the Electric Car

For years people have been saying that the electric car is destined for a comeback. Seeing as the electric vehicle was invented decades before its much more successful rival, the standard gasoline-powered car, one would think it not too difficult to give it an upgrade and perhaps a new coat of paint. After all, we have the capability to engineer microscopic robots and artificially replicate photosynthesis, how difficult can it be to make a viable electric car? Citizens of Hawaii and some Silicon Valley venture capitalists are teaming up to make just that happen. On Tuesday, Hawaiian Governor Linda Lingle announced that her state would partner with Better Place to develop the infrastructure to support electric vehicles. Hawaii will join the ranks of California, Denmark, Israel, and Australia in an attempt to completely transform the way people commute.

Better Place is not an automaker nor is it an electricity company. Better Place, according to its website, is a completely new approach to the way we drive. They compare it to a cell phone company, but I think the best analogy is cell phone meets zipcar. The idea is that you pay for driving as if it were a service – you pay for the number of miles you drive, for access to the Better Place recharging grid, and for the environmentally-friendly car. Starting in 2009, Better Place will begin constructing recharge stations, similar to gas stations only smaller, where customers can trade in exhausted lithium ion car batteries for fully charged ones. These stations are necessary in most places, because the battery only lasts for 100 miles. In Hawaii, Denmark, and Israel most people’s commutes are not this long, so the batteries at these stations serve an equally important role of storing excess energy that would otherwise be wasted. This is especially important in a place like Hawaii that imports $7 billion worth of oil each year even though it surrounded by bountiful resources of clean energy. It is hoped that this new project will wean the state off foreign oil while at the same time providing a boost to nascent clean energy industries.

There are still some problems with the system, however. Better Place envisions a time in the future when personal powering stations will be ubiquitous, but this will take time and require buy-in from the government and consumers. Also, the electric grid is still dependent upon fossil fuels like coal. While states like Hawaii and California can tap into sources of clean energy, it will likewise require a large and continued investment. This may become all the more difficult with the plunging costs of oil. There is not as much support and as great a sense of urgency for sustainable forms of transportation now that gas is 50% cheaper than it was during the summer. Click here for a video by BBC that addresses this topic.