Renault Well on the Way to Large-scale Battery Car Rollout

Mar 7 2011

The year 2011 promises to be an exciting one for auto loan buyers.  Several manufacturers have announced plans to introduce electric cars.  One of them, Renault, plans to roll out tens of thousands of electric cars this year.  The company has recently signed a deal with service provider Better Place in terms of which Renault will get access to that company's battery swap stations.

Sales of Renault's electric cars will kick off in Denmark and Israel.  Initially there will be three models: a compact, a saloon and a panel van.

Jens Mobery, CEO of Better Place in Denmark is confident that the rollout will be a success.  He expects thousands of auto loan motorists signing up for a Better Place contract, which enables them to exchange their electric car batteries, rather than recharge them.  This will drastically cut down the waiting time before the car can be on the road again.

At the moment the company has not provided any details about the cost of such a subscription.

Auto loan buyers with a Better Place contract will be able to recharge their electric car batteries at home as usual.  Once they are on the road, however, they can simply stop at a Better Place station and have the battery replaced rather than wait for it to be recharged.  This will on average take about a minute, compared to recharging, which can take a few hours.

The company plans to open around 100 charging stations in Denmark initially.  The bulk of these will be in Copenhagen, where 60 should be up and running by December this year.

Author - Louise Hutchinson

More from RENAULT News

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---