Shai Agassi, who for years has been preaching the possibilities of building an electric car infrastructure with the help of his company, Better Place, now has an entire state as his laboratory. Hawaiian state officials and the Hawaiian Electric Company yesterday endorsed a plan to build an alternative transportation system -- complete with an ambitious battery recharging network -- that Agassi hopes will begin operating by late 2011.

Hawaiian Gov. Linda Lingle said the agreement with Better Place would "help Hawaii get off its extreme oil addiction." The island state currently imports foreign oil for almost 90 percent of its energy needs, at a cost of more than $7 billion a year.

Agassi has already raised more than $200 million in private financing for this and other similar projects in Israel, Denmark, Australia. The Hawaiian project alone is expected to cost between $200 and $250 million, a figure that still strikes us as low given that Better Place plans to install upwards of 100,000 charge spots in parking lots, streets and neighborhoods throughout the state.

Still, Hawaii makes perfect sense for the project. Not only is it relatively small, with only about 1.2 million cars, but it is of course a contained environment. It would have been nearly impossible to build a similar infrastructure on the U.S. mainland without involving several states. "We always knew Hawaii would be the perfect model," Agassi told the New York Times. "The typical driving plan is low and leisurely, and people are smiling."

Agassi said yesterday that the Nissan Motor Co.-Renault SA auto alliance has agreed to make electric cars that would be recharged at the stations. Other companies, including the embattled Big Three, may also eventually provide vehicles.

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Electric Aloha!
written by Mara, December 04, 2008

This is awesome! I spent a fair bit of time in Hawaii and this has got to be the ideal place to push electric vehicle infrastructure since it's never far to get from A to B.

In Vancouver BC, (where I'm from) we recently had some building legislation pushed through that requires electric vehicle infrastructure be installed in homes, although for now, this is really just a preparatory move until technology is more developed and standardized. Will be very exciting to see how things develop in the Rainbow state!

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