Better Place quits Oz

Tech company formally announces it is staging a withdrawal from Australia

Better Place Australia, green energy supplier to the automotive industry, is closing shop. In an email this morning from Antony Cohen, CEO of Better Place Australia, the company officially declared its hand.

The decision to "limit any further investment in Australia" came from the parent company, which is in dire straits financially. Founding CEO Shai Agassi was replaced by Better Place Australia's former CEO, Evan Thornley, who lasted in the role a matter of mere months before making the decision to "step down", following creative differences at the highest levels of the company.

Furthermore, as we reported last month, the business case in Australia is effectively unsustainable, with currently registered electric vehicles on the road numbering in the hundreds – and none of them configured to exploit the battery-swap technology that was the lynchpin of Better Place's business model.

One car that would have been a viable proposition for battery-swapping was the Renault Fluence ZE, but the local importer has pulled the plug on that car, despite its readiness for a market such as Australia. Renault's announcement it had put on hold the local launch of the Fluence ZE came just months prior to today's announcement that Better Place Australia would be closing down.

While the Renault EV can also be recharged from standard 10-Amp power outlets, making it much more practical for the Australian market than other EVs, the business model for the Fluence ZE calls for a third party company to charge a fee to lease a battery under a contract arrangement separate from the purchase of the vehicle from Renault. That third party company was to have been Better Place Australia.

Emily Ambrosy, Corporate Communications Manager at Renault Australia, reiterated to motoring.com.au this morning that the decision to hold off importation of the Fluence ZE was a "joint decision made by the global head offices, together."

"So they have launched the Fluence ZE in Denmark and Israel... but because of the state of the infrastructure in Australia, the decision was made to hold that [model] back," she said.

It seems unlikely on the face of it that the decision to delay the Australian launch of the Fluence ZE, which has been ADR-approved, would have been the root cause of the decision to close down Better Place Australia. It's at least as likely that the decision to close down Better Place Australia prompted the parent to inform Renault it would be unable to support the Fluence ZE in Australia. So that leaves Renault in the lurch for the supply and leasing administration of batteries for the Fluence, but Renault Australia could bring that in-house, under the auspice of its finance arm, for instance.

For the moment, however, the Better Place announcement today represents another spanner in the works towards developing a viable EV industry and market in this country.

Stop press, February 7: Renault Australia advises that it was not previously aware Better Place would be withdrawing from the Australian market and Better Place's decision consequently played no part in Renault electing to postpone the local launch of the Fluence ZE. According to the company's Corporate Communications Manager, Emily Ambrosy, Renault is currently evaluating the smaller Zoe EV for Australia, and further consideration of the Fluence ZE for the local market will be impacted by Better Place closing down operations.

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Written byKen Gratton

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