Better Place, DONG Energy Close €103M Investment for Denmark Electric Car Network
27 January 2009
Better Place, in conjunction with DONG Energy, has closed approximately €103 million (US$135 million) in equity and convertible debt for the initial deployment of their electric car charging network in Denmark. (Earlier post.)
Under the terms of the agreement, DONG Energy will assist in the Better Place Denmark network rollout as well as be the preferred supplier of renewable energy to power the network. The move sets the stage for Better Place and DONG Energy to execute as planned against their commitment to enable the widespread adoption of mass-market electric vehicles by 2011.
In conjunction with the news, Better Place named Jens Moberg as Head of Better Place Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Business Development and Chief Executive Officer of Better Place Denmark, effective 2 February. As CEO, Mr. Moberg will focus on establishing Denmark as its first operation in Europe and play a significant role in expanding Better Place to other European countries.
He joins Better Place Denmark from Microsoft Corp., where he was responsible for developing and growing Microsoft’s multi-billion dollar enterprise business in Russia, India and China.
In March 2008, Better Place named Better Place Denmark as its second operator following Israel, which recently unveiled its first installed electric charge spots. Starting in 2011 through the extensive network, The Renault-Nissan Alliance will begin to commercialize a range of EVs especially adapted to Danish customer requirements. These cars will benefit from the Better Place mobility services and products.
To add a little to this story the plan is to set up 100,000 charging stating in Denmark and 100 battery swapping stations before 2011 the year where Renault will start selling Better Place EVs in Denmark. These EVs will have a battery range of 160 kilometer and both charging and battery swapping will be free of charge as long as you pay for a subscription service that will charge you according to miles driven. The miles driven will be monitored by an on board GPS system in the car.
Source http://www.business.dk/article/20090127/transport/701270078/
DONG is a good partner for Better Place. They are financially sound and they will not be hurt importantly by the current economic crises. By the way DONG stands for Danish Oil and Natural Gas and this is also their main business but the North See fields are being depleted so this is a nice project to secure future business.
Posted by: Henrik | 27 January 2009 at 11:16 AM
A little more info. Project Better Place needs to sell 50,000 cars in Denmark to break even and they promise to price the subscription of the battery so that it should be cheaper than gasoline vehicle driving and the EV will cost the same as a similar gasoline car.
Time will tell if they can keep that promise but higher gas prices would of cause help. Hopefully oil depletion and increasing marginal cost of oil drilling (at about 70 to 80 dollars per barrel) should take care of that before 2011 independent of economic crisis or not.
Posted by: Henrik | 27 January 2009 at 11:34 AM