the end of oil dependence

 

This is very cool. It is an —

Electronic vehicle [EV] conceptualized by Better Place and built by Renault. The effort that went into setting this up is huge, the cars require a city-wide recharge infrastructure as well as a computer component on board the vehicle. [Also they did the first smart thing I have seen anyone do in an electronic vehicle, hello, change out batteries so no sitting by the side of the road waiting on the battery to tank up, cell phone companies figured out you could do this why didn’t electronic car manufacturers?] But, Better Place has pulled this off, working with the Renault-Nissan Alliance as well as it appears Microsoft and unveiled the cars at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show and is set to launch wide spread use of the vehicles [estimated 100,000 vehicles initially] in Israel and Denmark by 2016.

:::press release:::
:::wired on renault ev:::

 

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*btw, i am not a complete idealist, there are still probs, like, um, convincing american automobile manufacturers and city infrastructures to work putting this together, like overruling the oil companies, long kings of finance, they are dinosaurs and must step aside and brand into new energy ventures, like the fact this isn’t going to power any planes trains or trucks yet — i get all that but it is still a damn good start so don’t rain on my parade