Silicon Valley startup Better Place has opened its first dealership and announced prices for its battery swap and leasing program. Although the pricing structure applies only to Denmark, it offers the Danes a pretty good deal compared to internal combustion.
Customers can place orders for the Renault Fluence Z.E. along with a battery-swap subscription service at the world's first fully operational Better Place visitor and sales center in Copenhagen.
It's an appropriate place for a launch, as Denmark produces 20 percent of its energy from wind turbines and has some of the highest fuel prices in the world. A gallon of gas currently sells for the equivalent of $8.32. That makes walking, biking and public transit very attractive options -- and Better Place hopes electric cars also catch on.
The Fluence Z.E. that Better Place is offering -- a quite attractive sedan in our opinion -- goes for a little more than $38,000 (at current exchange rates) in Denmark. It's got a claimed range of 114 miles, a swappable battery and features that put it on par with conventional cars in the same entry-level luxury segment. Add another $1,870 for a charging station, plus a battery-subscription service that runs $277 to $556 per month and you'll have your total cost of ownership.
We can hear you back there howling about the bottom line, but for Danish drivers this represents a significant cost savings over a comparable gas or diesel car, according to Better Place.
While the cost of a car and battery service might sound expensive up front, consider someone who drives 230 miles a week in a car that gets 25 mpg. That's $76.54 a week, or $3,980 a year, for gasoline at current prices. With Better Place, a year's worth of battery swaps and maintenance costs around the equivalent of $4164 -- and that's a fixed price that isn't dependent upon what a barrel of oil is going for.
The added attraction of the Better Place plan to those in Denmark is they won't pay a tax of up to 180 percent on the cost of a new car. And compared to the total cost of a car with a fixed battery -- a car like the Nissan Leaf, for example -- with Better Place you purchase the car and lease the battery separately, allowing you to swap a dead battery in minutes instead of waiting to recharge.
Better Place spokeswoman Julie Mullins says Danish customers considering conventional cars in the same class are looking at a savings of 10 to 20 percent by going with Better Place.
"At the end of the day, to make people switch, you have to make an offering that's affordable," she said.
The subscription service includes more than leasing a battery. It includes unlimited access to a network of public charge spots and battery-switch stations with batteries guaranteed to do the job. It also includes your electricity-usage charges, round-the-clock customer service and more. It's pretty much everything you need to go electric. Mullins said the charging infrastructure is being built out now.
"We'll have 15 by the end of the year, and that will expand as the customer base grows," she said. "You can drive and basically never be too far away from a switch station."
Denmark is the second major market for Better Place, which has enjoyed huge support from the Israeli government. Better Place founder Shai Agassi has boldly proclaimed one-third of the country's cars could be electric by 2015, and his startup plans to flood the country with charging infrastructure. It will open 40 swap stations by the end of the year, and plans to install as many as 100 charging stations.
Better Place won't sell electrified Fluences to those with limited incomes. However, for those Danes who are used to the expense of owning and driving a well-equipped car in a country where gas and taxes make personal transportation cost-prohibitive, becoming an early adopter of a Better Place-equipped Fluence may be attractive.
The folks at Better Place are cautious not to extrapolate Danish prices to the rest of the world but insist their goal is to offer a battery service that, combined with the price of the electric car, is more affordable than its gasoline equivalent.
"Every market will be different," Mullins said. "This is our first pricing. It's extremely competitive for the Danish market, and every market will have different nuances. But at the end of the day, our goal is to put people in a more affordable car."
Deliveries of new vehicles will begin in the last quarter of 2011.
Photo: Better Place
