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1/ Hanging around at home sent me down memory lane to ten years ago when I was barely out of college and building Better Place. It was such a wild journey.
Tesla had just come out with its Roadster and we started Better Place to develop infrastructure for everyday electric cars.
Tesla had just come out with its Roadster and we started Better Place to develop infrastructure for everyday electric cars.
2/ We used a converted Renault Megane as our test vehicle for the upcoming Renault Fluence ZE, which came out with a switchable battery. Like most startup MVPs, it was kind of embarrassing but it got the point across. This is our converted car doing test drives in Israel in 2008.
3/ The switch station became somewhat synonymous with Better Place. Looking at it from today's vantage point, the combination of connected car + electric car + EV infrastructure STILL looks futuristic. No wonder it was too early then.
4/ The politicians loved it. Here's now-Governor Newsom, then Mayor of SF, with a Better Place car. Announcements are fun, building infrastructure, harder. 10 years later, I just bought a car in SF and having no garage buying an EV still wasn't really an option. Sigh.
5/ Speaking of announcements, the Fluence was announced at the Frankfurt Auto Show by none other than Carlos Ghosn. And ten years later...yeah, wow. History is so strange.
I have so much respect for Ghosn's commitment to electric cars, despite the 2008 crisis. True leadership.
I have so much respect for Ghosn's commitment to electric cars, despite the 2008 crisis. True leadership.
6/ The Tesla Model 3 only this year passed the Nissan Leaf in sales. For a decade, it was the best selling electric car in the world, developed by a major carmaker at a time when all the other car manufacturers weren't doing EVs.
And Volkswagen...Volkswagen was just cheating.
And Volkswagen...Volkswagen was just cheating.
7/ Speaking of true leadership, the other one who really drove this project forward was Shimon Peres. He was an optimist, he thought we could do it.
8/ Better Place as a company failed and EV penetration is quite low still today. But arguably, maybe we did do it. The most valuable carmaker today is electric. Optimists have a habit of being right, somehow, eventually. https://www.barrons.com/articles/tesla-is-now-the-most-valuable-car-company-on-earth-51593613679
9/ We raised a billion dollars and spent it wildly. Being in my early 20s and flying all over the world, I loved it. Looking back on it, it wasn't the smartest way to build a startup. For example, we built this visitor center/dealership that put Starbucks Reserve to shame. Why?
10/ One answer to why we built it is that we were building an institution, an institution that believed in itself and in its own legend. It was a little crazy, but people joined and felt it was stable as a Fortune 500.
Not all Fortune 500s are stable. You learn that over time.
Not all Fortune 500s are stable. You learn that over time.
11/ Getting to see this wild dream we had at Stanford in 2007 turn into reality was amazing though, intoxicating even. By 2011 we had cars, charging stations, switch stations, in-car navigation that connected all the EV infrastructure. And it worked! It really, really worked!
12/ I left in 2011 because I thought there was so much potential for these connected car services and I wanted to do my own startup, but the company kept pumping out infrastructure and cars, and for a while, things stayed on track.
Japan had a taxi demo, which was SO futuristic.
Japan had a taxi demo, which was SO futuristic.
13/ Then, Better Place Israel started shipping Renault Fluence ZE's to customers.
14/ Then, Better Place Denmark started shipping as well.
Cars make for good pictures, good copy, good marketing.
Not always a good business.
Cars make for good pictures, good copy, good marketing.
Not always a good business.
15/ Ultimately, in 2013, the company failed. The idea might still work someday - but Better Place came at the dawn of the age of unicorns, and was an early unicorpse.
Part of me feels like, if it lived another year or two, Softbank would've rescued it. https://qz.com/88871/better-place-shai-agassi-swappable-electric-car-batteries/
Part of me feels like, if it lived another year or two, Softbank would've rescued it. https://qz.com/88871/better-place-shai-agassi-swappable-electric-car-batteries/
16/ At the end of the day it was subscriber economics: if you build a ton of expensive infrastructure, you better ramp up your subscriber count quickly. Sadly, Better Place never did ramp car sales up fast enough. The auto crisis didn't help. Startups are a bitch.
17/ But selfishly, even if my options never were worth anything, it was the best startup education I could've gotten. So many friends, so much fun, so much travel all over the world, so many moments and learnings and lessons to apply forever.
18/ ... End of random memory jog!
If you're curious about Better Place check out the Wired story that's probably the best read on what we tried to do. https://www.wired.com/2008/08/ff-agassi/
If you're curious about Better Place check out the Wired story that's probably the best read on what we tried to do. https://www.wired.com/2008/08/ff-agassi/
