JAN 29

I have to say that as an Israeli, I am very excited about this, and will try to join the project as soon as it is open to the public. It will definitely remove a lot of pollution from the cities.
However, I can't keep from wondering if this will really reduce the overall carbon emissions, since Israel is using only coal and natural gas for electricity production. Is there a report on how much CO2 is released per mile (as compared to an efficient Hybrid car), including ALL factors, like coal mining & transportation, energy loss in the power plant and power-lines, car-motor efficiency?

Indeed an exciting venture. What is most exciting is that it seems that finally we have all the ingredients for success (visionary entrepreneurs, powerful investors, coalition of the important constituents and a charismatic leader that hopefully will be able to recruit the needed talent and more partners). So it is now a matter of execution which is tough but not impossible.

As for end-to-end CO2 emission comparison between the alternatives, see this article (its in Hebrew) - http://www.globes.co.il/serve/...000300529. It quotes a research by the California Energy Authority (translation from Hebrew, I looked for it and couldn’t find it under this name) that found that overall GHG emission per Km is ~70% lower when using an EV than when using a fuel powered vehicle.

In addition, a common rule of thumb is that a fuel powered car emits about 200g per Km where (obviously) an EV emits no CO2 on producing kinetic energy. Finally another rule of thumb states that it is about twice more efficient to burn fossil fuel in a power plant and convert it into electric energy than to burn fossil fuel in an inefficient, small combustion engine. The following supports the comparison in the above article.

Let's keep this in perspective here, the Country of Israel is the size of the State of New Jersey (as seen here http://www.iris.org.il/sizemaps/new_jersey.htm).

Sure this is great and I too look forward to seeing this happen, as I work for a company headquarted in Israel, and have traveled there. The infrastructure required for this is even far smaller as over half the popualtion of Israel is on the coastal areas.

I've read the translated article of the California Energy Commission (that's their name), but couldn't find the original report. However, it sounds convincing that EVs reduce GHG emissions, thanks for the link.
I just want to point out, that it is not trivial to reach this conclusion. It is obvious, as stated, that combustion engines are less efficient than big power plants. But, fuel is a very compact way to store energy (unlike batteries), so you might loose energy for carrying a heavier weight. Additionally, batteries discharge spontaneously even when not in use, and you loose energy on power lines and during battery charging. There are so many factors to count in, that I find it impossible to just guess the answer. Thankfully, a reliable US agency did the job for us.
Come to think of it, it would be nice to know what should a fuel-based car Km per Liter be for it to have the same end-to-end CO2 emission as an EV. I would guess somewhere around 50.

The idea of swapping out batteries may seem to be a logical way of addressing the range limitation of pure EVs. However, one has to consider the extra capital cost of having more overall batteries (maybe not quite as many as twice) so that many are charging slowly at the exchange facility while others are being used. Would the overall number of batteries need to be 50% more, 75% more, 90% more... or merely 10%. Since the operation costs of an EV are highly dependent on the overall capital costs of the batteries (and in this case added cost for exchange stations), it might turn out that fast charging battery chemistries with high voltage charge stations are far less costly.

They must have some estimation of these numbers for an expected use model. Presumably due diligence has been done on the economics. I'd be interested if anyone has seen an analysis of this.

A few thoughts:

1. Yes Andy, Israel is small (and physically isolated) which is why it is a perfect beta site for the concept. They have plans to expand it WW (either by themselves or by franchising) which is where the real value is. Their go-to-market strategy is:
• Starting some beta sites at what they call transportation islands (small, densely populated areas where either because of geographical or other reasons people do not drive more than 100 miles a day. E.g. Singapore, Hawaii, etc.)
• While getting up the learning curve expand in these locations and to more locations with the same characteristics (I guess with a goal to reach profitability)
• As they reach the infliction point where they have enough experience and ability to scale and when the technology improves expanding to larger locations

2. Elad – though I was the one that mentioned the CEC report I will now play the devil’s advocate and ask how thorough that research was and did it include all of the drivers you have (rightfully) mentioned. As we have only the final numbers it is difficult to know what went into the analyses. Being a management consultant myself I know that some such researches are more thorough than others. Thanks for pointing out to the right web sites. I found the article (165 pages - http://www.energy.ca.gov/publi...07-004-REV) and will read it at my leisure to see how deep is the analysis 

3. RhapsodyInGlue – I am not aware of such analysis but wanted to point out that there is no one answer (say 50%). The model is stochastic and depends on behavioral variables such as user density in different areas and consumption behavior. I think that part of the competitive advantages PBP is planning on having is a proprietary SW to dynamically optimize the network deployment and battery inventory. Saying that, even for a stochastic model there is an expected value and its value in this case I don’t know. Finally, the way that I perceive it is that the exchange stations are a solution for a current (battery capacity) limitation. It is not something that one will aspire to invest in without a need. As batteries improve (range-wise) the need for such exchange station will reduce so the investment model should factor in this limited time horizon

For some reason the previous post truncated the link so here it is again

http://www.energy.ca.gov/publications/displayOneReport.php?pubNum=CEC-600-2007-004-REV

This is great news, I wish the project every success in it's goals, combined with developments in electric powered car design such as with Tesla Motors:
http://www.teslamotors.com/ c... for all.

I believe that the project should go a step further. The companies involved with backing from the gov't should develop solar and wind farms in the desert of an output capable of handling most if not all of the battery charging requirements. I know it is utopia at this time, but this would really help to eliminates emissions as well as a rather inexpensive and attractive source of energy after the initial outlay.