Better Place Consortium Delivers EU Showcase in Amsterdam
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Better Place Consortium opened an electric car battery swapping station at The Netherlands’ main international airport, and one of the largest in the world, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The station was opened in coordination with with the launch of a marque electric taxi project.
The company also announced the appointment of a new CEO, Paul Harms. Harms previously served as the CEO of Athlon Netherlands, and as executive VP of Athlon Car Leasing.
“We’re thrilled that Paul has joined the Better Place team to lead and expand this project going forward,” said Shai Agassi, Founder and former CEO of Better Place. “And we’re grateful for the support of the European Commission, the Dutch and Danish governments, Schiphol, Renault, and all of our partners in making this project happen in less than 18 months. We’re determined to demonstrate to Europe that electric cars can drive any distance in any country and aren’t just limited to short-distance driving.”
The project consortium, “Greening European Transportation Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles,” was the first decarbonization infrastructure project that was co-financed by the European Union’s TEN-T program.
For now, this station will be utilized only by 10 Renault Fluence Z.E taxis operated by Connexion, Bios, and TCA.
The EV battery swapping station was built in partnership with the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Better Place announced that it will also build another switch station in Amsterdam to expand the Schiphol showcase.
The Schiphol-Amsterdam corridor is among the most demanding routes, with more than 700,000 taxi trips originating from Schiphol per year. Battery switch technology can enable electric taxis to operate all day because they don’t have to spend hours charging.
Better Place stations take less than 2 minutes to swap car batteries. They remove discharged batteries from the floor of vehicles and replace them with charged batteries. The removed battery is charged until another vehicle comes to pick it up.
Unlike most new concepts, the Better Place battery swapping one stands out because it has been around for years and is successfully operating in Israel and Denmark. So, I give them props for that.
Source: Business Wire
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