How to save the world? A global journey into making our lives better…

This may sound like an impossible dream, but it is actually feasible. Better still, it is already under way.

Shai Agassi was a high-flyer in SAP and its potential next CEO, when he resigned to create “Better place”. He has the ambition to build an infrastructure for a new generation of electric car. The roadmap is to make it cheaper to buy and run than conventional cars, to use more of the wasted off peak electricity and to make it convenient for the user through fast charging and battery swapping.

Better Place works in partnership with Renault-Nissan, and has received support from governments of Israel, Denmark and Australia.

In April 2008, Deutsche Bank analysts reportedly concluded that this approach has “the potential to eliminate the gasoline engine altogether”.

Now, this is not going to end global warming issues, because the electricity still has to be produced and the facilities to produce electricity from green and sustainable sources are not yet in place in every countries. Better Place however has a strong commitment on using renewable energies (solar and wind power) and has developed an algorithm for smart grid use aimed at using up underutilized off peak energy.

This is a critical step toward a real green economy, and as an added benefit will bring a new balance to the geopolitical map. We may see some countries coming out of poverty as a result of not importing oil anymore. We may see less political tensions over oil fields. And the world economy will be more stable for being less dependent on highly volatile oil prices, which have had dramatic effects in recent years.

Here is what the Renault concept cars look like, to be released on the market in late 2011. You can find more about them on http://www.renault-ze.com

Renault's Zero emission cars