Palo Alto-based Better Place unveiled its EV services platform at last week’s Frankfurt Motor Show to great acclaim. This EV infrastructure developer tied the development of its integrated EV charging system with Renault, which highlighted the Fluence ZE. Better Place and Renault promoted its plan to get 100,000 electric vehicles on the roads of Israeli and Danish cities by 2016. The EV services platform presentation featured a discussion about the corporate partners helping Better Place bring this concept to the market.
The primary purpose of the EV services platform is to create seamless communication between utilities, vehicles and charging stations. Better Place plans to install a monitoring system called AutOS in each of its vehicles to observe each driver’s traffic patterns and tendencies. The EV services platform tracks energy loads from every charging and battery switch station within a particular network to control electrical charges during peak periods. This exchange of data and driving tendencies within an EV network will be used to keep drivers updated on available charging stations, traffic delays and battery life.
Better Place would not have been able to develop the EV services platform without partners like Flextronics, TUV Rheinland and Intel. Flextronics is working with Better Place to develop an initial order of 1,000 charge spots with an additional 100,000 units waiting for initial tests. Better Place is partnering with TUV Rheinland to observe implementation of its EV services platform to ensure safety during charges and battery switches. The computing system needed to connect all of these disparate elements includes Intel processors, Microsoft Windows Embedded elements and onboard computers from Continental of Germany.
The final component of Better Place’s Frankfurt presentation was a rundown of progress on its EV projects around the world. Better Place is working with 50 partners catering to 35,000 electric vehicles in Israel. The company recently partnered with Danish insurer TrygVesta to discount auto insurance for EV owners and lessees. Better Place is experimenting with electric taxis in Japanese cities, municipal EVs in Canberra and fleet EV charging in San Francisco and Hawaii. The expanding influence of Better Place around the world coupled with more models compatible with its EV charging model promises a brighter future for EV advocates.
