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Better Place can operate profitably in Israel

Brian of London — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:58:53 +0000

It’s been two weeks since electric car service provider Better Place, one of the most famous icons of Israel’s “Startup Nation” culture of high tech innovation, declared bankruptcy and called in the receiver. The court appointed receiver has guaranteed most operations until June 13th: so far all systems for around 900 drivers of Renault’s Fluence [...]

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It’s too soon to know everything that went wrong at Better Place

Brian of London — Sun, 26 May 2013 13:58:31 +0000

I’ve written here at Times of Israel extensively about the Better Place car I own and drive. Today the company filed for bankruptcy. It really is too soon to know everything that went wrong and there will be a lot of speculation. Customers do not know what it means for them. I had confirmation on [...]

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Everything you ever wanted to know about driving a Better Place car

Brian of London — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:08:17 +0000

Everything you ever wanted to know about Better Place but weren’t ashamed to ask at the traffic lights. This is a collection of questions my fellow Better Place owners and I have all fielded whilst out driving or parking our cars. I’ve answered many of these as nearby drivers give frantic hand signals asking you [...]

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Finnish double down on an arrogant politician

Brian of London — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:02:25 +0000

In a featured Op-Ed at the Times of Israel, Manfred Gerstenfeld, explains even when a poll comes back with the answer that 5 million Dutchmen believe Israel is marching Palestinians into death camps as I write, the Dutch establishment and media put their fingers in their ears and scream la-la-la. Imagine we asked a less [...]

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Green Jerusalem without the hot air

Brian of London — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:53:55 +0000

On Sunday I met with Naomi Tsur, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem at her office in the heart of Israel’s capital city. I was invited to talk to her because she has put together an interesting conference: International Jerusalem Symposium on Green and Accessible Pilgrimage. As regular readers of mine will know, despite the fact I drive [...]

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Giving back is optional

Brian of London — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 07:17:42 +0000

Every few days in Israel we hear about some small startup or other making an “exit” and the founders walking away with a big pile of cash as the fruits of their hard labour are picked up and carried forward by a big company. So this story is a little different: sometimes that cash gets [...]

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Diesel is bad for our health

Brian of London — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:28:20 +0000

Diesel fuel is bad for you: especially if you’re Obama’s advance guard and you’re filling up the President’s limo with the wrong fuel. It may be named “The Beast” but it won’t roar if it doesn’t get fed the right fuel. Pity it’s not electric: last time I checked there was still only one type of [...]

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Another everyday story about using an electric car

Brian of London — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 20:20:52 +0000

On Saturday night, with the Times of Israel’s social media queen, Sarah Tuttle-Singer and fellow ToI blogger Eric Schorr in my car I experienced, yet again, why the Better Place system is so much more than an electric car. First I’ll repeat a fundamental truth about electric cars: their best role is repeated travel between [...]

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An economic Iron Dome Israel isn’t using

Brian of London — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 07:18:36 +0000

A few weeks ago I chided Better Place and gave them advice on marketing their tremendous electric driving service in Israel. Better Place is doing much better now: they’re focusing exclusively on Israel and Denmark. Sales have dramatically improved. Now I want to look at the Israeli Government. Why is it refusing to take advantage [...]

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Elon Musk apologises for trusting the New York Times to be truthful

Brian of London — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:28:35 +0000

This is not a story about electric cars: this is about journalistic ethics. In the words of the Big Lebowski: I’ve got certain information, all right? Certain things have come to light. Last week I wrote for Times of Israel about a New York Times article concerning a cold weather road test of the Tesla [...]

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Tesla is selling the wrong story on electric cars

Brian of London — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 09:47:25 +0000

In a New York Times article this weekend, a journalist has tried to take a long distance trip in a battery powered Tesla Model S luxury car. For battery electric cars, a long trip is further than the comfortable range of the battery. In the case of the $90,000+ Tesla S, with the largest battery [...]

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Anyone want to kill a cartoonist?

Brian of London — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:13:10 +0000

If you spend much time on the internet following Jewish or Israeli affairs, you’d be aware that the Sunday Times in London published a supposedly political cartoon by their long time political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. The Commentator was probably the first publication to drop and smash their iDevice that day and they weren’t the last. This [...]

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Cool and sexy

Brian of London — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 19:13:56 +0000

Yesterday the Times of Israel published my long oped about Better Place. Last night Better Place invited a group of around 150 customers to their visitor centre in Glilot to meet the senior management. I’ve written a long, detailed account over at my blog, Israellycool, but I wanted to highlight a small part which relates [...]

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Better Place has failed?

Brian of London — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 05:00:32 +0000

Electric car company Better Place has failed to market their amazing product in Israel correctly. They can still turn it around and become a huge success. While Israel is the Startup Nation, the vast majority of Israelis are not early adopters of new technology. They want to see something in the hands of millions of Americans before [...]

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A weekend in Eilat or a weekend on heroin?

Brian of London — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 13:22:54 +0000

Have you ever wondered why people take heroin? You’ve had it drummed into you that it’s instantly addictive, will kill you within minutes and that you’ll end up selling your children to pay for it. Except that if it kills you so quickly how come you’ll be addicted to it? And knowing all that, why [...]

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