Better Place swappable EV batteries priced, Renault is definitely onboard

It’s going to be a little while before you’re able to recharge your battery-electric EV as quickly as you can refuel your gasoline-powered machine. Until then there’s Better Place , offering a suite of options including traditional recharging and fast battery-swapping. The idea is you don’t buy a car with a battery you buy a car then lease the battery, and now we’re getting an idea of what that lease is going to cost. It’s launching first in Denmark with the Renault Fluence Z.E., a €27,496 ($38,500) car. If you’re okay with driving less than 20,000km per year you can get by with monthly battery fees between €199 and €249 ($278 to $348), which includes recharging at Better Place locations or five-minute battery swaps if you’re in a hurry. For €399 monthly ($558) you get unlimited mileage, but all plans get stuck with a €1,341 ($1,874) up-front fee to install a home charging station — a bit steep compared to Ford’s $1,500 option but not bad overall. Renault is also announcing Better Place support for its Twizy, which is featured in a video below. It’s a tiny little thing that will cost just €6,900 ($9,640) and is due to ship this year. That’s astonishingly cheap for an EV but, of course it comes without a battery pack, so you’ll need to be leasing one. However, we’re told there’ll be a 7,500km lease option for just €45 ($63) per month. It also won’t be coming to the States, planned only for a European launch, a land of smaller roads that’ll be better suited to this flea-sized creation. And now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ll be sending our poor currency-converting intern on break. Poor gal really needs a coffee. Continue reading Better Place swappable EV batteries priced, Renault is definitely onboard Better Place swappable EV batteries priced, Renault is definitely onboard originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on March 4, 2011. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry