Better Place Electric Car visitor centre opens

Better Place have opened a visitor centre in Israel to demonstrate their battery swap technology for electric cars Last October we wrote about a start-up company in Israel – Better Place – that had a new way forward for electric cars by taking the purchase of battery packs out of the equation, and was developing a system for ‘Battery Swap’ stations where electric car owners could drive in and swap their battery pack for a fully-charged one in a few minutes. That story first brought to our attention our favourite quote of last year – by Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn – who said “A hybrid is like a mermaid: if you want a fish, you get a woman; if you want a woman, you get a fish.” Which probably explained why Nissan – and its partner Renault – got involved with Better Place. Better Place aims to address the main concerns of electric car drivers by making the battery packs in electric cars ‘swappable’.

Changes Coming to the Petersen?

If the idea was to get everyone talking about it, then the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles has succeeded. The Petersen, one of the greatest automotive institutions in the country, is anonymously selling 64 of its cars at a relatively low-key auction, leaving 300 behind in its Wilshire Blvd. home.

No Porsche plan for model priced less than Boxster

Porsche has no plans to sell a car costing less than the Boxster, according to the automaker's head of sales and marketing. "To build a Porsche for 30,000 euros [$37,800 at current exchange rates] currently doesn't fit our brand," Bernhard Maier told the Automotive News Europe Congress in Monaco on Thursday. "The extraordinary purchase experience is not for free and the entry price is currently covered with the Boxster and in the future by the Macan." He said Porsche's plan to double sales won't compromise exclusivity.