Better Place's plan to create a world full of electric vehicles that swap their batteries when they run out of juice is reportedly dead.
According to Fortune, the Israel-based company plans to file for bankruptcy in the coming days, with a source familiar with the situation saying that Better Place couldn't scale quickly enough, and "The company was not well-served by having things it thought would happen over a decade happen within a year."
Better Place has been around since 2007 and raised $850 million in funding, but over the last several months, the company has endured a fair amount of turmoil.
Its charismatic founder and CEO, Shai Agassi, was ousted by the board late last year, and his position was filled by Better Place Australia CEO Evan Thornley, who left a few months into the gig.
But the biggest hurdle for Better Place wasn't just scale, it was adoption. Only one automaker -- Renault/Nissan -- was willing to create a vehicle that was compatible with Better Place's swappable battery packs, leaving other EV owners out in the cold. Combined with building out infrastructure, stations and chargers, Better Place's business model began to look outmoded, and while the possibility of battery packs that can be swapped at will is still a possibility, it looks like Better Place won't be leading the charge.
