EV Charging Enterprise Better Place Goes Bankrupt

PARIS – Three months after Israel Corp. Chairman Amir Elstein said his company was patient with battery-swap subsidiary Better Place, and less than a month after Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn said battery-swapping was not the future of electric vehicles, Better Place files for bankruptcy in Israel.

Better Place says in court documents it has $9.5 million in assets, owes $40 million to creditors and has spent $812 million in investors’ capital, according to the Jerusalem Post. It reports Renault, which supplied the Fluence ZE electric car to Better Place, claims it had not been notified in advance and demanded €65 million ($84 million) as a secured creditor.

Better Place put on a brave face until the end, saying earlier this month its customers have successfully driven 621,000 miles (1 million km) in the year since the network of recharging stations opened.

Renault said two weeks ago that it was planning a big event in Israel. But the auto maker has sold or leased only 1,100 EVs, and new customers are not arriving quickly enough to reach break-even.

“Unfortunately, after a year’s commercial operation, it was clear to us that despite many satisfied customers, the wider public take-up would not be sufficient and that the support from the car producers was not forthcoming,” Better Place CEO Dan Cohen says in a statement.

The board of directors say in the statement that the vision of founder Shai Agassi “to deliver a positive change in the world in which we live…is still valid and important, and we remain hopeful that eventually the vision will be realized for the benefit of a better world.

“However, Better Place will not be able to take part in the realization of this vision.”

Better Place was operating in Denmark and Israel, where the governments reduced normally high automotive taxes for EVs.

Renault says today it will continue servicing customers’ Fluence ZEs and their batteries in those countries. The auto maker said earlier this month that Better Place had sold 1,170 units in Israel and 293 in Denmark.

”This decision does not at all call into question the electric-vehicle strategy of the Renault-Nissan Alliance,” Renault says in a statement. “The Alliance is the world leader in terms of electric vehicles, and the volumes of Renault’s EVs continue to progress month after month.”

The Fluence ZE was the only EV equipped with a battery that could be changed for a fresh one in several minutes. Other auto makers didn’t follow suit, although Renault said its subcompact Zoe could have been adapted to the system.