Friday, August 22, 2008

Shai Agassi, Better Place, featured in Wired Magazine

Shai Agassi, the founder and CEO of Better Place, is on the cover of the most recent issue of Wired Magazine. The article, “Shai Agassi's Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road,” is a must read for anyone interested in Shai Agassi, the origins of Better Place, and the politics and economics of electric vehicles.


Highlights include:

A Q&A with Israeli President Shimon Peres, who contends that Israel can be a global cleantech R&D center

A description of AutoOS, the Better Place operating system, and how it will transform the transportation grid. AuotOS will serve as an energy monitor, GPS unit, help center, and personal assistant, packed into an onboard PC that will also hold cellular and Wi-Fi chips.

Details of Agassi’s efforts, along with venture capitalist Michael Granoff, Better Place’s earliest investor and its head of oil independence policies, to lobby the U.S. government to create incentives for electric cars

An inside look at a Better Place meeting in Tel Aviv to determine the design of the company’s charge spots

A test drive of a Better Place prototype with the company’s chief engineers

News that Better Place is in discussions with Chery Automobile, the massive Chinese auto company, and is eyeing the Chinese market. (Israel Corp., which has invested $130 million in Better Place, has a joint venture with Chery Automobile, and Idan Ofer is Chairman of both Israel Corp. and Better Place.)

News that Better Place is raising $160 million to roll out the Electric Vehicle Recharge Operator in Denmark. (The company has already raised $200 million.)

Confirmation that Agassi has flown to Honolulu to meet with the Governor of Hawaii, which might become the first place in the U.S. to sign an agreement with Better Place.

Better Place names Israeli firm to oversee recharing infrastructure

In other news, Globes reports that Better Place has selected Massad Oz Management & Supervision Ltd. to manage the pilot recharging infrastructure deployment for the company's electric car venture. Massad Oz will set up the recharging infrastructure in Tel Aviv parking lots in the coming months.

Related Posts:

Better Place secures $350 million series B round led by HSBC

Project Better Place in talks with Mercedes, Hawaii, and San Francisco

Project Better Place presents prototype

Deustche Bank: Project Better Place has "the potential to eliminate the gasoline engine"