The Better Place legacy?

Rock Development Group own 3 Mitsubishi i-Miev’s that get charged at the Betterplace EV Charge Spots on a fairly regular basis. In Canberra, ActewAGL also have one in their fleet as well as a few private owners. In terms of payment for the charging, owners can pay for a membership swipe card which is preloaded with a certain amount and is deducted each time the user swipes their card for access to the charge point.

The EV Council actually hold a festival each year, and in Canberra particularly it has been found that more people are converting their existing, petrol run cars to electric as opposed to going out and buying an electric car from a dealer.

And in response to the car park itself, yes the cars come with a fairly long extension cord which means the owner doesn’t need to be parked in a single space right in front of the charge point.

thatsnotme said :

I know it doesn’t matter now the scheme’s gone belly up, but I’d always wondered – how was it paid for?

If by some miracle someone with an EV had parked there to recharge, would they have received a bill for the power they’d used?

From what I recall in the media when these points were put in, the plug you use (it has some sort of special multi pin jobbie) has some sort of coded way of communicating with the charger to that it can charge the car efficiently, and also so it can bill you.

In the photo you can see that the red light is still on, so this unit has power to it, which is why I asked if there are any cars actually in Canberra (or even Australia) with the right kind of plug to use this thing? And if there is, is anyone actually running the billing system?

thatsnotme said :

I’ve never seen an EV hooked up to that charge point. And even if an EV had ever wanted to use it, the parking space for it has no limitations on it – it was never an EV only space, so if anyone wanted to use it and someone else was parked in there, then too bad.

Don’t all electric cars come with a very long extension cord?

Gee, if this project had succeeded, Mark Sullivan’s $1 million bonus (reported in today’s CT) would have been even higher.

Buckaroo_Banzai said :

Heh. “Current users”.

Haha, nice pick up.

I’ve never seen an EV hooked up to that charge point. And even if an EV had ever wanted to use it, the parking space for it has no limitations on it – it was never an EV only space, so if anyone wanted to use it and someone else was parked in there, then too bad.

I know it doesn’t matter now the scheme’s gone belly up, but I’d always wondered – how was it paid for? If by some miracle someone with an EV had parked there to recharge, would they have received a bill for the power they’d used?

Heh. “Current users”.

It looks like Better Place has gone to a better place. To the nearest petrol station to fill up.