Shai Agassi

The remarkable scope, overwhelming ambition, and epic failure of the Better Place electric-car service in Israel is worthy of a book, or several. But until one appears, Fast Company magazine has produced the most comprehensive article yet on the founding--and foundering--of the great Better Place...

Shai Agassi, founder of the now-defunct Better Place electric-car service in Israel, hasn't been in the public eye much of late. But on the business network LinkedIn this morning, he emerged to weigh in on the lessons of Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] and what the auto industry at large could learn from...

Better Place, the electric-car service that pioneered battery swapping for passenger cars, filed for bankruptcy yesterday in Israel. A statement on the Better Place website said it had applied to a court for an orderly dissolution of the company to protect "the rights of its employees, customers...

The Better Place electric-car system has not had a good run of news lately. But despite little attention, it has managed to boost the sales rate in Israel for its cars, along with subscriptions to its battery-switching service. Deliveries for all of 2012 were 518 cars. Roughly the first 100 were...

Given soothsayers' record on end-of-the-world predictions, this probably won't be humanity's last year on Planet Earth. But for the folks at electric car start-up Better Place, 2012 has brought more than its share of doom and gloom. The biggest downer came in October, with the firing of Better...

Better Place has moved a bit further down the road in its quest to corner the electric vehicle market. In Denmark, the company has just unveiled Europe's first Battery Switch Station, which will serve as the cornerstone of Better Place's biggest real-world test to date. The grand event was held at...

What’s the best way to ensure that your electric vehicle technology gets adopted by as many consumers as possible? Take it to China, of course. That’s exactly what electric car infrastructure firm Better Place has done, with the announcement that it has signed a strategic agreement with...

Better Place, the ambitious program that's launching its electric-car service in Israel, opened its first battery-swap station there on Wednesday. At an event marking the opening, CEO Shai Agassi said the company would be profitable within two years of starting to provide mobility services to its...

As 2010 draws to a close, we now have shipments of the 2011 Nissan LEAF and the 2011 Chevy Volt to customers around the United States. With the advent of these vehicles, is there still a business case for Better Place? To refresh your memory, Better Place is the venture between Shai Agassi and...

This past Monday, the electric-vehicle infrastructure provider Better Place held a press conference in Tokyo at the site of its first completed battery-swap station to be put into regular usage, in the Ropongi Hills area. Together with Nihon Kotsu, Tokyo's largest taxi company, the company will...