What we can learn from the electric vehicle shakeout
GigaOM Pro analyst Adam Lesser looks forward to what lessons can be learned from some of the recent struggles of the electric car startups.
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GigaOM Pro analyst Adam Lesser looks forward to what lessons can be learned from some of the recent struggles of the electric car startups.
If Better Place files for bankruptcy in a few days, as reported by Fortune, it would represent a sober end to a high-flying dream that raised hundreds of millions of dollars.
The headline-blaring, jaw-dropping tech company crash and burn doesn’t happen all that often. But when it does, you can count on there being some similarities in leadership, transparency, and hype.
In the same week that Better Place has exited the U.S. and Australia to focus on Israeli and Denmark, Better Place founder and former CEO Shai Agassi says he still believes in the business model of swappable batteries and subscriptions for electrons.
In contrast to the bulk of the electric car companies and vendors out there, Tesla actually reaches its planned production run rate of its Model S electric car. This is its path to profitability and mainstream auto status.
Better Place is once again changing up its CEO, and after three months at the helm, Evan Thornley is stepping down. Founder and former CEO Shai Agassi stepped down in October, amid mounting losses and slow uptake of the electric car service.
Yet another electric car startup is having trouble. Coda Automotive is laying off 50 employees — or 15 percent of staff — after a delayed launch, slow sales, and a car recall. The bad news follows Better Place layoffs, and A123 System’s bankruptcy.
Three companies that made aggressive bets on the future of electric cars — A123 Systems, Fisker Automotive and Better Place — are now facing major problems financially and commercially.
Electric car charging startup Better Place continues to raise money from its investors — particularly Israel Corp — as it seeks to finish building out its networks in Denmark and Israel. The company is raising another $100 million on top of its previously raised $750 million.
The CEO of electric vehicle charging company Better Place, Shai Agassi, will step down as CEO and is being replaced with Evan Thornley, formerly the CEO of Better Place Australia. The company needs to make money and the initial roll out has been slow.
Electric car charging startup Better Place has raised another $50 million, this time in the form of a loan from European Investment Bank. The company has raised a whopping $800 million, mostly in equity to get its charging networks built out in Denmark and Israel.
Cleantech venture capital and corporate investing for the full 2011 year was up in terms of overall dollar amounts compared to 2010, according to the research firm The Cleantech Group, but large follow-on rounds for matured companies continued to dominate the year.
Better Place, which hopes to build an empire of electric car charging and battery swapping stations, said Friday it has closed a $200 million funding that will bring the company’s valuation to $2.2 billion.
China has long been perceived as the must-tackle market for clean power and cleantech, but it’s also become a spigot of private capital for startups that find the marriage of money and market opportunity particularly appealing.
Better Place’s network in Israel won’t be powered by much clean power at launch, CEO Shai Agassi tells me. That’s because Israel is caught up in the same battle that many clean power projects in the U.S. have faced: opposition to transmission lines.
Electric car maker Fisker Automotive has already raised over $1 billion in equity, loans and grants. And yet, the company, which will be launching its first inaugural electric car this summer, has raised another $100 million. That’s on top of the $190 million which recently closed.
Electric vehicle battery-switching evangelist Better Place is digging deeper into the world’s biggest electric car market to come — China.
Electric car infrastructure startup Better Place has spent the past three years talking about its vision of selling electric car miles like cell phone minutes, accompanied by a network of chargers and battery swap stations. Now it’s getting ready to deliver in Israel.
The closely-watched electric vehicle project Better Place has finally announced its first pricing in Denmark in advance of a launch of the service in the fourth quarter of this year. Now we’ll have to wait to see if consumers actually find the offer attractive.
Cutting the battery cost out of owning an electric vehicle could be a key way to push electric vehicles into the mass market, according to a report from consulting giant Accenture.
Greentech startups captured four out of the five biggest U.S. venture capital rounds last year — and if it weren’t for Twitter, they might have landed all five.
Two projects that will bring electric vehicles to Bay Area residents in indirect ways — taxis and car-sharing — were unveiled today. It’s not unusual for alternative vehicles to make it first to these types of ecosystems before they become mainstream via consumer purchases.
Tesla and Better Place might seem like swell partners, given the EV startup connection, but think again. A Tesla VP says the companies look at batteries fundamentally differently.
Better Place announced this afternoon that it is heading Down Under to deploy its electric car infrastructure in Australia. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup is working with Australian utility AGL Energy to build an electric car charging grid powered by renewable energy. Macquarie Capital Group will finance the AUD$1 billion ($671 million) undertaking.
Automaker Renault announced today it has teamed up with French utility EDF to build a huge electric vehicle infrastructure, starting in France, with the goal of making electric cars a viable and attractive option by 2011.
Auto shows can be like fashion shows, where the designers bring out both their bread-and-butter designs, as well as things more fanciful. Debuting at the Paris Auto Show that starts this weekend, Renault’s Z.E. Concept car seems to be a little of both
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Working on the web is great – except when it’s not. One of the areas where our way of work is a two-edged sword is in accountability. When you do something great, it’s easy to get the credit, because you aren’t just one of an anonymous herd in an office. But when you mess something up, it’s equally easy to get the blame. And given the nature of the tools we use, opportunities to make mistakes are always around.
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