Renault has a number of cars lined up for its electric fringe and the one that most probably will hit the roads first is the Fluence. Interestingly, other than charging these cars at a home grid, for the longer journeys, the buyers could swap the batteries at a battery swap station. Each of these swap stations would be built for a staggering $500,000 and a Silicon Valley Startup-Better Place would be the one developing it. The swapping would take lesser time than it takes to fill gasoline at a regular station. Targeting Israel as the first country, Renault and Better Place are working towards establishing some 150,000 plug-in charging stations and about 100 battery swap stations for the car that would hit the Israeli markets by mid 2011. A first glimpse of the production ready model would be on display at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show.
Via: Wired
