Better Place, is it really Better?

I recommend to anyone with an interest in the environment and in particular, the electric car revolution that is coming to a place near you, view this professionally made video about Better Place. It's really worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp78rfNkfrY&NR=1

Kudos to Better Place for brings the vision of Electric Vehicles to the main stream.

When viewing it a second time however, I noticed there was a reoccurring theme – they are making deals with governments, with car manufactures and in Israel’s case, plans to install hundreds of thousands of charges all over the country. What strikes me as odd is that it seems that they are looking to control the entire EV infrastructure. Imagine one company to fill up your gas tank, one company to use a mobile phone, one company controlling media. Personally, I find it pretty freighting.

Think about it; according to the video Better Place wants you to buy an EV from them, connect to their charger and have a computerized system that tells you where to “juice up” or, replace a battery and guess what –they also tell you what to pay.

A similar correlation may be found in US history with Standard Oil and ATT. Both companies had their roots in the late 19th and early 20th century America. Standard oil was begun and controlled by John D. Rockefeller and for a while controlled every aspect of oil in the USA - from drilling, processing distribution all the way to the end user. Remember ATT? They were once the only telephone company - everywhere. They owned the infrastructure, cables and everything; even one’s telephone. Thanks to US anti trust laws, they were declared monopolies and soon enough “broken up.” If that never happened imagine what the world would look like today without competition and innovation.

I do not see Better Place having hegemony in the USA, for starters Americans like to have competition, it creates flavor, innovation and most of all lower prices for you and me. Car Charging Group Inc., a public company trading as CCGI, is the only company I know that is actively building an EV infrastructure. They offer a unique business model and have recently expanded overseas. CCGI’s contribution to the US EV infrastructure as with others will truly provide a better place for all.