Israel is Determined to Conquer the Market of Electric Cars

While electric cars are being established in the international arena, Israel demonstrates its willingness to become a leader in this field. These are the ambitious plans of the country: by 2011 have 50 percent more loading stations and battery exchange points than Denmark - the other leading state in the field of electric cars.

Such competition is definitely a benefit. Israel has also a possibility to become independent from oil.

Learning from the mistakes

Currently, Israel repeats the failure of the California's plan in history: in the 1990 the state of California tried to influence car-makers to produce zero-emission cars, but the coup, in the auto-industry, never happened. Let us hope that Israel's attempts will be successful.

In the beginning of year 2008, the government took a serious step, in order to drastically reduce energy dependence and promoted to choose electro mobiles.

On the other hand, Israel's plans are far bigger than California's was - the government goes hand in hand with major car manufacturer "Renault-Nissan" and infrastructure company "Better Place" to build hundreds of thousands charging stations across the country.

It is necessary to lower the prices

And yet, in order for the cargo net, together with rental and exchange points, function as efficiently as possible, the necessary reduction in the price of batteries is needed. The main element used in electric and hybrid batteries is lithium, so the search for new lithium deposits is constantly going on. About 60 companies began researches in lithium-rich regions such as Argentina, Serbia and the U.S. state of Nevada and mineral-rich Bolivia and Chile.

The possibility of recycling used batteries is not excluded - it is stated that 50 per cent of lithium can be used for a second time. New resources and the material processing combination should significantly reduce the cost of batteries for electric cars and increase efficiency. According to the latest news, lithium cost per ton fell by 20 percent; Danish bank, in 2009 November, distributed a report that the cost of lithium-ion batteries will fall 25 percent over the next five years and 50 percent within 10 years.

Shai Agassi, the founder of "Better Place", expects to install about 500 000 recharge points in Israeli parking sites throughout the country and help Israel to conquer the market of electric cars.Source