this may interest the many who think about 'mobility miles'
Nancy
December 10, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/opinion/10friedman.html?hp>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/opinion/10friedman.html?hp
While Detroit Slept
By
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/thomaslfriedman/index.html?inline=nyt-per>THOMAS
L. FRIEDMAN
As I think about our bailing out Detroit, I cant
help but reflect on what, in my view, is the most
important rule of business in todays integrated
and digitized global market, where knowledge and
innovation tools are so widely distributed. Its
this: Whatever can be done, will be done. The
only question is will it be done by you or to
you. Just dont think it wont be done. If you
have an idea in Detroit or Tennessee, promise me
that youll pursue it, because someone in Denmark
or Tel Aviv will do so a second later.
Why do I bring this up? Because someone in the
mobility business in Denmark and Tel Aviv is
already developing a real-world alternative to
Detroits business model. I dont know if this
alternative to gasoline-powered cars will work,
but I do know that it can be done and Detroit
isnt doing it. And therefore it will be done,
and eventually, I bet, it will be done profitably.
And when it is, our bailout of Detroit will be
remembered as the equivalent of pouring billions
of dollars of taxpayer money into the
mail-order-catalogue business on the eve of the
birth of eBay. It will be remembered as pouring
billions of dollars into the CD music business on
the eve of the birth of the iPod and iTunes. It
will be remembered as pouring billions of dollars
into a book-store chain on the eve of the birth
of Amazon.com and the Kindle. It will be
remembered as pouring billions of dollars into
improving typewriters on the eve of the birth of
the PC and the Internet.
What business model am I talking about? It is
Shai Agassis electric car network company,
called Better Place. Just last week, the company,
based in Palo Alto, Calif., announced a
partnership with the state of Hawaii to road test
its business plan there after already inking
similar deals with Israel, Australia, the San
Francisco Bay area and, yes, Denmark.
The Better Place electric car charging system
involves generating electrons from as much
renewable energy such as wind and solar as
possible and then feeding those clean electrons
into a national electric car charging
infrastructure. This consists of electricity
charging spots with plug-in outlets the first
pilots were opened in Israel this week plus
battery-exchange stations all over the respective
country. The whole system is then coordinated by
a service control center that integrates and does
the billing.
Under the Better Place model, consumers can
either buy or lease an electric car from the
French automaker Renault or Japanese companies
like Nissan (General Motors snubbed Agassi) and
then buy miles on their electric car batteries
from Better Place the way you now buy an Apple
cellphone and the minutes from AT&T. That way
Better Place, or any car company that partners
with it, benefits from each mile you drive. G.M.
sells cars. Better Place is selling mobility
miles.
The first Renault and Nissan electric cars are
scheduled to hit Denmark and Israel in 2011, when
the whole system should be up and running. On
Tuesday, Japans Ministry of Environment invited
Better Place to join the first government-led
electric car project along with Honda, Mitsubishi
and Subaru. Better Place was the only foreign
company invited to participate, working with
Japans leading auto companies, to build a
battery swap station for electric cars in
Yokohama, the Detroit of Japan.
What I find exciting about Better Place is that
it is building a car company off the new
industrial platform of the 21st century, not the
one from the 20th the exact same way that Steve
Jobs did to overturn the music business. What did
Apple understand first? One, that todays
technology platform would allow anyone with a
computer to record music. Two, that the Internet
and MP3 players would allow anyone to transfer
music in digital form to anyone else. You
wouldnt need CDs or record companies anymore.
Apple simply took all those innovations and
integrated them into a single music-generating,
purchasing and listening system that completely
disrupted the music business.
What Agassi, the founder of Better Place, is
saying is that there is a new way to generate
mobility, not just music, using the same
platform. It just takes the right kind of auto
battery the iPod in this story and the right
kind of national plug-in network the iTunes
store to make the business model work for
electric cars at six cents a mile. The average
American is paying today around 12 cents a mile
for gasoline transportation, which also adds to
global warming and strengthens petro-dictators.
Do not expect this innovation to come out of
Detroit. Remember, in 1908, the Ford Model-T got
better mileage 25 miles per gallon than many
Ford, G.M. and Chrysler models made in 2008. But
dont be surprised when it comes out of somewhere
else. It can be done. It will be done. If we miss
the chance to win the race for Car 2.0 because we
keep mindlessly bailing out Car 1.0, there will
be no one to blame more than Detroits new
shareholders: we the taxpayers.