As first reported by "Globes", electric car venture Better Place announced today that it had signed a strategic agreement with China Southern Power Grid Co. (CSG), the world’s eighth largest utility according to the Fortune Global 500.
The agreement, which focuses on joint electric car and infrastructure projects in CSG’s service areas, will further advance electric cars with switchable batteries in China. The agreement calls for the companies to open a battery switch station and joint education center in Guangzhou, where CSG is based, before the end of the year, while working to formalize a joint-venture partnership.
Also today, Guangzhou’s Executive Vice Mayor Wu Yimin signed an agreement with Better Place founder and CEO Shai Agassi that calls for the Municipal Government of Guangzhou to assist Better Place and CSG in their efforts to create a supply chain hub and electric car network in China’s third largest city. The Guangzhou accord calls for the municipal government to encourage local car manufacturers, such as Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group, to produce electric cars with switchable batteries. It also calls for the city to promote electric-car adoption in fleet segments including public-sector vehicles and private-sector fleets such as taxis.
“China Southern Grid is an important partner in a huge market that is moving quickly toward the mass-market development of electric cars and is embracing battery switch as the primary means of range extension,” Agassi commented. “Our collaboration with China Southern and the support of the Guangzhou government open the door to new opportunities for switchable-battery electric cars made by Chinese manufacturers for the domestic and export markets.”
China Southern Grid Chairman Zhao Jianguo said, “Better Place has conducted extensive research and testing on its battery-switch technology combined with managed charging, which takes into account the attributes and needs of the electric grid as the electric-car industry grows rapidly in China. The battery-switch model may become mainstream in China and our joint visitor center and battery switch demonstration project with Better Place will help promote electric-car adoption in China by allowing potential customers to experience this innovative solution.”
The Better Place-CSG agreement calls for the companies to jointly engage relevant Chinese government bodies and other stakeholders, secure governmental policy support, and promote technical standards, where appropriate, to further accelerate China’s rapidly-growing, electric-car industry. The companies are looking at the potential for a joint commercial operation based on a switchable-battery, network-operator model. Their pilot projects and other joint activities will explore the benefits that switchable-battery electric cars and the networked infrastructure that supports them can deliver to the electric grid in CSG’s service area, which spans five provinces, one million square kilometers, and 230 million people in Southern China.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 27, 2011
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