Israel's Shai Aggassi* is someone to watch on this topic. He has been covered in HBR from time to time and it appears that his incremental rollout of a network of battery changing stations is moving forward:
Better Place, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place
Renault Fluence Z.E., From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Fluence_Z.E.Better Place is a venture-backed international company. It is formally based in Palo Alto, California, but the bulk of its planning and operations has been steered from Israel, where both its founder Shai Agassi and its chief investors reside. Better Place develops and sells battery-charging and battery-switching services for electric vehicles. Israel is also the location of the company's first large-scale commercial pilot for battery-switching services, launched to the public in early 2012.
Energy CEO Shai Agassi on recognizing a “sliding-doors” moment, A Conversation with Shai Agassi by Josette Akresh-Gonzales, May 2009, HBR, http://hbr.org/2009/05/energy-ceo-sh...rs-moment/ar/1
Speeding Ahead to a Better Place, by Elie Ofek, Alison Berkley Wagonfeld, Harvard Business School , Publication date: Jan 19, 2012, http://hbr.org/product/speeding-ahea...512056-PDF-ENG
Better Place Plans Electric-Car IPO Within 2 Years, Agassi Says, By Gwen Ackerman & Jonathan Ferziger - Jan 25, 2012 7:34 AM MT, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...assi-says.html
Startup to Capture Lithium from Geothermal Plants, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011, Science, http://science-wired.blogspot.com/20...hium-from.htmlBetter Place LLC, a U.S. startup developing charging stations for electric vehicles that started putting cars on the road this week, expects to go public in the next two years, Chief Executive Officer Shai Agassi said.
“We’re probably not going to go for another private round between now and the initial public offering,” Agassi, 43, who founded the business, said yesterday at Better Place’s test track and showroom north of Tel Aviv. “We have enough capital to go all the way until then.”
The Lithium Rush, By Antonio Regalado on December 21, 2009, Technology Review, http://www.technologyreview.com/phot...-lithium-rush/As portable electronics get more popular and the market for electric vehicles takes off, demand for lithium—a critical element in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries—could soar. Yet just two countries, Chile and Australia, dominate global lithium production.
----In the Bolivian Andes lies a vast salt flat that may shape the future of transportation.
*Hmm it seems Shai Agassi is no longer the CEO or on the board of Better Place...
http://www.betterplace.com/Our-Story
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