Shai Agassi to establish electric car network

Shai Agassi's electric car company Better Place will design America's first electric car network in the San Francisco Bay Area until 2012. The company plans to build a network of charging stations which will enable the drivers of its electric cars to plug in wherever they go. "The economic contractions bring the opportunity to modify the technology of the automobile industry. The car makers are forced to get into a dialog, to which they were not prepared under the past circumstances", says Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Franscisco.

The electric cars should be distributed like cell phones. The vehicles will be cheaper if the buyer drives a certain number of Kilometres, while the batteries still belong to the company. "We buy the batteries and the electricity and sell the miles", says Shai Agassi. The mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland support the project and have outlined a plan for making the Bay Area the "Electric Vehicle Capital of America".

Agassi is passionate for using technology and capital markets to solve massive social issues. He is an active member of the Young Global Leaders organization (YGL) within the World Economic Forum (WEF) where he focuses his work on topics relating to climate challenge.