Better Place

The vision: a service network for electric cars

Better Place was founded in 2007 by Shai Agassi to run a service network for electric cars. It offered charging and battery swapping, in partnership with Renault, which supplied electric Fluence cars. The idea was to deal with the limited driving range through infrastructure: the driver could charge the car, and on a long trip swap a drained battery for a charged one. The company tried to connect the car, stations, batteries and a service subscription. Israel and Denmark were the two main markets where the operation was rolled out. In Israel the company built 37 battery swap stations, according to Calcalist, and in November 2013 AP reported about 1,800 public charging points and more than 1,000 electric cars on Israel's roads. Beyond developing technology, the venture required building infrastructure and ongoing operations for drivers who had already bought the cars.

The model and the scale of investment

In the battery swapping model, ownership of the car can be separated from use of the battery, and the driver pays for a service that includes it. Better Place invested in a charging network and in stations where the battery is swapped, instead of relying only on waiting for a charge. Globes reported in April 2013 that since its founding the company had raised more than $850 million from investors including Israel Corporation, Idan Ofer, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and General Electric. By the end of 2012 its accumulated losses reached $812 million. In 2012 its revenue was only $7 million.

Milestone: a resounding missed opportunity

Better Place tried to build a national infrastructure for electric cars in years when electric cars were still rare. In Denmark, where it operated from 2009, a nationwide network of swap stations was completed by the end of 2012 and more than 500 customers signed up, according to the Danish broadcaster DR. AP described the venture as a source of pride and a symbol of Israel's status as a high-tech powerhouse. Sales were weak, and the company could not secure long-term financing. In October 2012 Shai Agassi left the CEO role; his successor Evan Thornley left after less than three months, and the company was later headed by Dan Cohen. In May 2013 the company applied for liquidation. The CEO of the Danish arm, Johnny Hansen, told DR that day that the company had not hit the right timing, and that the parent company had not been able to raise the financing it needed.

Liquidation and sale of the assets

On 28 May 2013, the court ruled that the company would be run for a short time by temporary liquidators, on a reduced scale and with employees laid off, so that the existing cars would keep getting service. Deals to sell the business to Sunrise and later to Tsahi Merkur's Success Assets were canceled, according to Calcalist. In November 2013 the special administrators asked for approval to sell parts to different groups for a total of NIS 8.4 million, including NIS 1.2 million for the charging network, the support systems and 42 used cars to Gnrgy. On 22 November, AP reported, citing Gnrgy CEO Ran Eloya, that the company had bought the remaining assets for less than $450,000. The amounts refer to different stages and sets of assets, not to a single price for all of Better Place.

Legacy

The charging network went to Gnrgy, which, Eloya told AP, focused on running charging stations and not on battery swapping. The battery swapping idea that Better Place promoted kept developing in the car industry. According to Globes, the idea reached China early in the previous decade through Better Place, which signed agreements there to build a network of stations, and only in later years was it adopted in the Chinese five-year plan; the Chinese carmaker NIO now runs a network of swap stations. In 2023 Calcalist asked in a headline, "Was Agassi right?", as battery swap stations returned to the global market. In 2025 Globes reported the opening of NIO's first swap station in Israel, at Glilot, through Delek Motors, and noted that Better Place first came up with the idea and built a network of such stations in Israel about 15 years earlier. The story of Better Place remains a case study in building infrastructure before there is a broad customer base, in depending on a single carmaker and in the need for long-term financing.