Better Place

“How do you make the world a better place by 2020?”

This profound question, posed by Klaus Schwab at the 2005 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, got the Israeli entrepreneur, Shai Agassi thinking. With a passion for tackling large-scale challenges, Agassi sought to answer this question with a pragmatic solution to free cars from oil, reduce harmful tailpipe emissions, and usher in an era of sustainable transportation.

After considering various different alternatives, Agassi zeroed in on Electric Vehicles. Today, he works with government leaders, auto manufacturers, energy companies and others to  make his vision—zero-emission vehicles powered by electricity from renewable sources—a reality in countries around the globe.

Shai Agassi

 Agassi founded Better Place and, in 2007, officially launched the company. In 2008, Israel became the first country—and Renault the first carmaker—to embrace the Better Place model of building open network infrastructure to enable mass adoption of electric vehicles and delivering transportation as a sustainable service. Denmark, Australia, California, Hawaii, and Ontario have followed suit. Today, Agassi and Better Place are in discussions with many countries, carmakers and other potential partners around the globe.

Source INSEAD 2010 case study