The green car race has introduced the motoring world to a host of new names, but perhaps none are as influential as Better Place.
At the Frankfurt Motor Show, the company introduced its electric vehicle services platform in conjuction with Renault’s unveiling of the Fluence ZE Concept with switchable battery system. The company also announced it is working with Continental of Germany, Flextronics, Intel, Microsoft and TUV Rheinland on different aspects of its electric vehicle platform and infrastructure with Flextronics used for charge points; Continental, Intel and Microsoft providing the in-car computing platform; and TUV Rheinland used for safety certification.
The aim of Better Place is as straightforward as it is admirable – it wants to help the industry overcome the obstacles of extended range, price and impact on the grid. In the hope of enabling mass-market electric vehicle adoption, it is producing a comprehensive infrastructure for the automotive and utility industries that combines physical charging infrastructure and the data used to optimise the charging and manage the grid.
Cars will use an on-board computing system code-named AutOS that creates a personalised energy plan for each driver. Then Better Place uses a master data centre to enable smart charging of all electric cars on the network by optimising and prioritising when, where and how much they are all charged.
Then, as a centrally controlled function, the data centre integrates data across the whole network including information like the availability of charge spots and battery switch stations; and the ability to harness peak levels of renewable energy generation. By using this data, Better Place has a complete view of the entire network.
The company has already made in-roads into Israel, Denmark, Japan, Australia and North America.
