ELECTRIC VEHICLE NETWORK PLANS PROGRESSING

A business lunch hosted by Canberra Business Council has confirmed progress on plans to deliver the Canberra component of a national electric vehicle (EV) network. Senior representatives of both partners in the enterprise – Geoff Zippel, Head of Deployment for Better Place Australia and Michael Costello, CEO ActewAGL – presented at the event.

Better Place, a global electric vehicle (EV) services company, is on track to deliver the national EV network, starting with Canberra in 2011 and rolling out Australia-wide from late 2012.

Better Place Australia will build the infrastructure, services and systems to support the first several hundred EVs in Canberra. ActewAGL will source and distribute the renewable energy that Better Place will use to power its electric vehicles within the ACT.

Better Place recently announced new funding that will support its commitment to investing in Canberra as the first Australian site for its national rollout of an EV services network.

The company has raised US$350 million of new equity financing from a consortium led by HSBC Group that includes Israel Corp, VantagePoint Venture Partners, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Lazard Asset Management.

California-based Better Place is a global provider of EV services, predominantly in developing and implementing the transportation infrastructure to support electric vehicles relying on renewable energy from solar and wind.

ACT Chief Minister John Stanhope said that the project demonstrates the ACT Government’s commitment to tackling climate change and supporting the introduction of electric vehicles to Canberra.

More information: Better Place Australia External Link

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