better place

Lithium-ion. Maybe one of the best ions ever.

Lithium-ion batteries have been powering your favorite gadgets for years. The qualities that make this technology ideal for mobile phones and computers apply to electric cars, too. Made from nontoxic materials, today’s lithium-ion batteries have unprecedented safety characteristics. They offer lots of power, stand up to punishment, produce relatively little heat and they’re quite stable, especially when combined with intelligent software.

That being said, Better Place is ready and willing to adopt new battery technologies as they emerge. Currently, lithium-ion is the clear winner, so we’re sticking with it. In fact, we regularly find ourselves teaming up with leading battery and auto manufacturers such as Renault-Nissan and AESC to help drive forward the application of switchable-battery, lithium-ion technology.

Earth-friendly power.

A lithium-ion battery can be recycled with minimal environmental impact. And, more than 95% of the materials in a battery can be recovered and reused. Even before recycling, used electric car batteries are useful to wind and solar farms (and other green industries) for energy storage. Burned fossil fuels? Not so much.

Range: We've come a long way. We're going even farther.

Compared to older lithium-ion technologies, modern batteries can store significantly more energy and produce twice the power — both critical factors when it comes to range. Today, a competitively priced midsized, all-electric sedan offers a range of 100-150 kilometers (60-90 miles) on a single charge, depending on the way you drive, terrain, weather and other factors.

Our switchable-battery technology makes the next logical leap. If the range of your car isn’t enough for a particular trip, you can simply switch your battery in minutes at a Better Place Battery Switch Station. Technology rules.

Learn more about Battery Switch Stations.

Charging, charge times and a better idea.

Let’s start with the basics. There are three ways to charge an electric car: Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3.

As you can see, despite recent advances, charging just doesn’t compare to the convenience of filling up a tank of gas. For electric cars to gain widespread popularity, we needed a way to extend range in a matter of minutes.

The Level 3 “quick charger” is close, but very few units are available, they put big pressure on the electric utility, no one knows the long-term costs, and these rapid chargers tend to decrease battery life over time.

Clearly, the only way to extend range instantly is to switch batteries. If you’ve read this far (nice job, by the way), you already know the Better Place solution does just that. Of course, even with unlimited access to fully charged batteries, you’ll still want the convenience of home charging. Which is why we’ll manage the whole process of installing a Charge Spot (Level 2) where you typically park. So now you can have unlimited range and convenient home charging. A win-win.

For more details about our charging solutions, visit Charge Spots.

Battery lifetime. (Not that it really matters anymore.)

Better Place members don’t have to worry about the life of a single battery. That’s our problem. We provide all the batteries you'll ever need, constantly introducing the new and phasing out the old. But if you’re still curious, any given battery in our network is projected to last about eight years before it’s off to a second life in a new application, or recycled.