Comments on: Better Place raises $50M loan from European Investment Bank http://gigaom.com/2012/08/28/better-place-raises-50m-loan-from-european-investment-bank/ Thu, 23 May 2013 08:53:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Tim Meyer http://gigaom.com/2012/08/28/better-place-raises-50m-loan-from-european-investment-bank/#comment-955296 Thu, 30 Aug 2012 01:43:17 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=557464#comment-955296 Designing a car from scratch is a complex process that takes 5-6 years. Why would any company compromise their industrial design (and factors such as air/liquid cooling, front/back balance, etc) and trust a startup?

If it takes $800M to tool up two tiny countries, I would say this venture looks unsalvageable. Just making a charging network takes a fraction of that money, just ask Coulomb.

]]> By: nick http://gigaom.com/2012/08/28/better-place-raises-50m-loan-from-european-investment-bank/#comment-952038 Wed, 29 Aug 2012 08:12:20 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=557464#comment-952038 They are really good at raising a load of money. I’m still not sure if the whole thing is going to work though. There is only one car in existence which is designed to use the swapping system isn’t there? The Renault Fluence. Surely they needed several car makers to sign up. I know they also do standard charging, but I’m just not convinced they will ever have that many people signed up and paying them enough money for it to be worth while.

I’m no expert so maybe I’m wrong. Time will tell I guess.

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