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100 Days With A Better Place Electric Car: Likes & Dislikes Page 2

 
1,801 views Sep 13, 2012
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Coffee and keys to Better Place Renault Fluence ZE, Israel

Coffee and keys to Better Place Renault Fluence ZE, Israel

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Ignoring the value of items like tow-truck coverage and OnStar-like tracking included in the Better Place subscription, I've saved at least $300 on fuel compared to my previous Honda Civic.

What do I like?


  • The car's performance around town is a joy: fast and responsive while easy to drive slowly in Tel Aviv's notorious traffic.
  • The air conditioning cools the car fast, and I've enjoyed having the car precooled by a timer while parked in my hot garage through the summer.
  • Service on the phone and in person from Better Place continues to exceed my expectations. Money they owe me is a paid promptly and inquiries are dealt with quickly and efficiently.
  • Better Place has added a very slick parking app so I can pay for on-street parking anywhere in Israel, directly from the car's dashboard.
  • The switching stations work as designed when needed.

What don't I like?

  • Who decided that headrests in new cars must permanently touch your head? I can't put the Renault's headrest back far enough, and it's annoying.
  • The air-conditioning fans are too noisy, perhaps because everything else in an electric car is so quiet.
  • The range-prediction system isn't great at predicting downhill range; descending from Jerusalem, I frequently beat its range projection with 20 percent less battery usage, meaning I have to ignore warnings to pull over and switch batteries.
  • The current placement of switching stations aren't optimal for me; I can now drive anywhere in Israel, but when more stations come online, I'll need fewer stops.
  • The Israeli Electric company and Better Place still haven't managed to install a separate electricity supply for my car at home. Better Place promptly repays me each month for the power I use, which I pass on to my building's condo board, but this remains a broken promise that makes both Better Place and me look bad.

However I look at it, I'm still a happy Better Place customer and--as regular readers surely know by now--I still recommend the car and service to everyone who questions me at traffic lights or comes up to me when I park.

Brian of London emigrated from the UK to Israel in 2009. He owns and operates his own import company in Israel with more than 15 staff. Today he regularly blogs at Israellycool.com about life in Israel, technology & business topics and, lately, his electric-car driving experiences.

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Comments (10)

  1. estykd avatar Esther Keidar Posted: 9/14/2012 12:55am PDT

    I own also a fluence z.e. and we live north to Haifa. I would like to point out that you can check on the Oscar web whether the car is properly plugged in and the percentage of the energy that is left. I recently handed over the car to my son for a trip to the dead sea. He had to switch batteries 4 times and I could follow him on the web and see the level of energy left. The first time he missed the switching station Yarkon and Better Place called him and diverted him to Nesharim switching station. He finally got there with read 5% energy. He had to switch again at Kiryat Gat and then in Arad. Then the energy level did not move and stayed on 100%. It appeared that he got to Yam Hamelach with 100% battery because he drove 30 km down the hill
     
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  2. Chris O avatar Chris O Posted: 9/14/2012 6:11am PDT

    @ Brian: Imagine that Better Place had opted for the Renault Zoe with it's on board 43KW fastcharger (and actual luggage space)rather than the Fluence with it's battery quick drop system in the trunk. The Fluence gets a network of 38 battery switch stations, a total investment of 38*$500K=$19 million. The Zoe needs high capacity power outlets at ~$3500 a pop (according to Renault)so the same investment could have paid for a network of ~5000 fastcharge stations.

    Battery switch is 5 minutes+ the time involved in the detour, if available at all where your going.
    Fastcharge is 20 minutes, but it's available pretty much everywhere

    Which of the two scenario's would have fitted your driving pattern best?
     
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  3. brianoflondon avatar Brian of London Posted: 9/14/2012 7:32am PDT

    Unfortunately I've taken 4 trips (short visit meetings) on which I would not have tolerated a fast charge unless the charger happened to be outside my meeting location. Add to that the problems of iced fast chargers and uncertainty as to their operating status and I would not have bought an EV.

    Zoe didn't exist when Better Place built their system. As good as it may be (it still isn't with any users) it would be a ton better with battery switches. I've done the whole fast charge / switch argument to death. I wouldn't buy an EV without acces to switches. I certainly wouldn't pay a premium over a gas car for one! I started saving on day one.

    Trunk space is easily sufficient for me. Haven't wished for more yet.
     
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  4. Chris O avatar Chris O Posted: 9/14/2012 8:25am PDT

    But.... what if these fastchargers (not really fastchargers, just high capacity power outlets) were conveniently interspaced every 10 miles or so along highways at gas stations, ramps and rest places so one could perfectly plan when and where to recharge and reach any destination along the shortest possible route without having to worry about proximity of rare battery switch stations, would that change your verdict?

    Also I fear many people are rather appalled to open the Fluences trunk just to find most of the space occupied by the quick drop battery system, but that may be due to the fact that the Fluence is an ICE conversion and maybe future BP vehicles can have differently shaped batteries that go where they belong: under the floor.
     
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  5. brianoflondon avatar Brian of London Posted: 9/14/2012 9:54am PDT

    Unless you can convince my Arab customers to have one of these put in the street outside their offices in Haifa or on the edge of Ramallah or on Salah ha Din St in Jerusalem (where finding street parking requires an act of God), I'm still not buying. I have 10 mins to spare on the way there or back, but I don't have 45 mins or an to divert and charge (hoping the infrastructre is working because it's unattended).

    And the point of the vast investment Better Place has made is that they care passionately about making me happy. Unfortunately nobody in the world has demonstrated that fast charging is a viable business either so nobody appears to take it as seriously.

    And then when you have a large enough fleet fast charging, Israel's grid fails
     
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  6. Chris O avatar Chris O Posted: 9/14/2012 11:15am PDT

    That's odd...you will make a 15 minute detour to have your battery changed (per one of your earlier posts) but the fastcharger needs to be right at your destination. Even having them at close intervals along the roads wouldn't work for you...

    BP doesn't invest to make you happy but to make a profit. I think that would be easier for them ánd most of their clients would be happier with the cheaper and more practical network system I propose.

    The grid problem could be real, but that doesn't apply to every country and should be solvable.
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  7. Chris O avatar Chris O Posted: 9/14/2012 10:03am PDT

    Wikipedia tells me Israel barely has 4000 miles of roads. Assuming 2000 miles of them make up the main network only 200 relatively cheap power outlets could have supplanted the $19 million investment in a network of only 38 quick drop stations to form IMO a both cheaper and much more practical infrastructure. In combination with a much better EV design like the Zoe that could have been the recipe for success for BP that the current set up so far doesn't appear to be.
     
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  8. brianoflondon avatar Brian of London Posted: 9/14/2012 12:05pm PDT

    I find myself as an informal salesman for Better Place whenever I'm out in the car. If the first thing I had to tell people was they have to change their lives (pausing on longer trips for 30 mins) I know they'd walk. Sure a few ideologues will stay but that's it.

    I guess the unwritten sub head of my piece is, my driving habits haven't changed! I'm just slightly less free to choose when I fill up, but still filling up the same amount. If your driving habit is never more than 75 miles, great. But most people fixate on their fringe cases.

    And it comes back to the whole value package. It really is saving me money from day one.
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  9. Chris O avatar Chris O Posted: 9/14/2012 1:34pm PDT

    Whatever system one chooses, range being what it is one always has to plan around opportunities to either quick charge or change battery, so electric motoring will always entail making changes in behaviour. 20 minute fill ups are a drag(could be less though if the sole purpose is to make it home), but so is having to adjust one's itinerary or making detours or deciding some places are just out of range depending on the presence battery change stations that I feel will always be relatively few and far between because of their cost.

    The cheaper the infrastructure, the better value package a supplier could offer.
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  10. brianoflondon avatar Brian of London Posted: 9/14/2012 11:39pm PDT

    Chris O,

    I fundamentally disagree about cheaper being better. I agree that Better Place have no business in USA with $4 gas. In EU and Israel with $8 gas it's completely different.

    So in the USA you will have minimal use of EVs for some time to come, only ideologically driven wealthy people will tolerate their current limitations.

    In Israel I do not need my EV to cost 70% less than a gas car to run. I just need the initial purchase at parity (it is or better) and the running costs 15% better (it's even more for me than that). So once the shock wears off and people see them working, the reasons not to buy will drop away. I already hear that in my conversations.
     
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