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BetterPlace is the global provider of electric vehicle networks and services.
charging
To enable broad adoption of EVs, there needs to be a concerted effort to provide convenient charging where it is required, such as at homes, offices and pubic areas. Better Place develops, installs and manages large networks of charge spots that will give consumers the convenience and services they need to confidently make the transition to EVs.
Better Place is currently deploying a network of charge spots in Israel and Denmark, with other regions to follow shortly. Customers will be provided with a personal Better Place 220V charge spot for their homes (garage, carport or otherwise). Early data shows, and we expect, that EV drivers will primarily use personal home charge spots, plugging in their cars at night, and waking up the following morning to a fully charged battery. Better Place will also install charge spots at workplaces, in public parking lots, and along urban streets so that EV drivers have convenient access to energy away from their homes. At a minimum, Better Place charging means no more trips to gas stations and dealing with the volatility of gasoline prices.
Depending on location, these charge spots will come with either one or two outlets and provide various levels of power. The most common type of charge spot will provide a “standard charge,” which takes 4-8 hours to fully recharge a typical EV lithium-ion battery. The actual charge time will depend on the amount of charge remaining in the battery, the size of the battery, and the power level of the individual charge spot (certain select locations may be faster than the standard version).
All charge spots are equipped with communication systems that allow for data transfer with Better Place network operation centers, modular EV network management hubs. The ability to communicate with network operation centers and network management hubs provides customers and utilities with real-time information that enables a number of important services. Customers get optimized route planning and navigation assistance to charge spots and battery switch stations while utilities can manage electricity production by modulating EV charging to take advantage of off-peak electricity.
Design
Better Place is paying particular attention to the aesthetics, ergonomics and ease of deployment of our charge spots and charging cables since they will be in homes and on parking lots and streets. A gentle but clear LED light indicator expresses the readiness of the charge spot. Our charge spots won the gold prize in the 2009 International Design Excellence Award competition for their aesthetics, user-friendliness and overall industrial design. In addition to accolades for charge spot design, Better Place won the 2009 INDEX: Design to Improve Life award for the design elegance and vision of our complete solution for enabling electric vehicles for the mass market.
Deployment
Better Place is deploying charging infrastructure in various regions around the globe in order to pave the way for broad adoption of EVs. To install a few charge spots is a relatively simple project; to quickly deploy charge spots and battery switch stations at scale is challenging. Through sophisticated custom software tools, we are able to quickly plan our charge spot and battery switch locations based on the local geography, driving patterns and other factors.
In addition to hardware tools, we partner with various property owners and managers, such as railways in Israel and Denmark, allowing them to integrate charging infrastructure at the locations they control. In Israel, more than 50 leading companies—including Amdocs, Cisco, FedEx, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Orange—have signed on as vision partners and agreed to be our first corporate fleet customers.
Infrastructure
An important and often overlooked aspect of any infrastructure is the management and maintenance required to make sure it keeps working. One element of this is monitoring: Better Place will monitor all charge spots down to the individual socket and provide maintenance quickly to ensure the charging network is always available. Another important management aspect is unique to Better Place: through our knowledge of where and when the EV fleet will most likely charge, we enable utilities to optimize their generation and distribution of energy to better match demand. Among other benefits, this intelligent charging will allow the maximum use of intermittent renewable energy.
Battery Switch Stations
In order for EVs to provide a “no compromise” solution, they need to deliver the same freedom to go anywhere that drivers of combustion engine cars enjoy today.
Long battery recharge times are a matter of physics. Even as batteries and charging infrastructure improve, using EVs for long journeys will require a way to quickly and reliably extend the range provided by a battery. Better Place provides this solution via a network of battery switch stations that use an ingenious robotic system to switch new batteries for depleted ones, cool and charge the batteries in inventory, and manage the complex logistics to ensure that each EV gets a fully-charged battery each time the vehicle arrives at a station.
Better Place is working with automakers to ensure that EVs and battery switch stations are compatible. EVs are giving automakers new freedom for innovative designs since the engine, exhaust and complex gearing systems are replaced by simple gearboxes, electric motors and solid state batteries. Flat or ‘pancake’ batteries under the floor of a car allow the cars to have a lower center of gravity, improving handling and increasing interior packaging flexibility. In addition to the performance benefits, an easily accessible location simplifies manufacturing and will reduce maintenance costs.
At Better Place battery switch stations, drivers enter a lane and the station takes over from there. The car proceeds along a conveyor while the automated switch platform below the vehicle aligns under the battery, washes the underbody, initiates the battery release process and lowers the battery from the vehicle. The depleted battery is placed onto a storage rack for charging, monitoring and preparation for the another vehicle. A fully-charged battery is then lifted into the waiting car. The switch process takes less time than a stop at the gas station and the driver and passengers may remain in the car throughout.