by Jon Moran

As the pre-election fervor begins to heighten, and the major news networks spin the politician’s words and actions into daily drama, we must not confuse the object for the subject. While it is exciting to converse and prophesize about November’s election results it is important for all of us to remember why this election is so exciting for the American public. Both of the major candidates have made the promise of change in government but there is a man who has a powerful vision of the future, who everyone should be rooting for, and you don’t have to wait until November to show your support.

His name is Shai Agassi, and his vision of the future of personal automobiles is rapidly becoming a reality in developed western countries. With major financial backing from Israel, Agassi’s company Better Place is changing the way governments, and progressive populations are looking at the personal automobile.

Agassi is featured on the most recent cover of Wired and is the subject an extensive article by Daniel Roth. You can read the full text of the article online here: Driven: Shai Agassi’s Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road. Agassi’s plan to eliminate the combustion engine completely, the future is electric cars. With our current infrastructure, the electric engine concept is troublesome and in large part due to current battery technology. It takes a couple of minutes to fill your tank with enough gas to drive hundreds of miles, a couple minutes of charging traditional batteries might give you enough juice to drive 3-5 miles.

From Wired: “Agassi dealt with the battery issue by simply swatting it away. Previous approaches relied on a traditional manufacturing formula: We make the cars, you buy them. Agassi reimagined the entire automotive ecosystem by proposing a new concept he called the Electric Recharge Grid Operator. It was an unorthodox mashup of the automotive and mobile phone industries. Instead of gas stations on every corner, the ERGO would blanket a country with a network of “smart” charge spots. Drivers could plug in anywhere, anytime, and would subscribe to a specific plan unlimited miles, a maximum number of miles each month, or pay as you go all for less than the equivalent cost for gas. They’d buy their car from the operator, who would offer steep discounts, perhaps even give the cars away. The profit would come from selling electricity the minutes.

If the driver is in a hurry and cannot wait for a charge, all they have to do is pull into a ERGO station and swap the battery for a fully charged one in minutes at no extra cost to the consumer. ERGO owns the battery. The entire system is monitored wirelessly and GPS locaters are in constant communication with ERGO to ensure a proper charge for the distance you need to travel. The proposed system is a drastic, radical change in automotive infrastructure. But drastic times call for drastic measures, and the world is beginning to listen. Israel has signed on with Agassi’s proposal and the infrastructure is beginning to be implemented. Renault has begun to manufacture cars compatible with the Better Place infrastructure and charging methods. Belgium just recently became the second nation to fully endorse the Better Place business plan and is offering full co-operation to make it a reality.

The real test will be to get a nation with greater physical area and a larger automobile market to sign on and accept the challenge to get off oil for transport. Agassi is trying to storm Washington, DC and get the American public excited about the future of personal transport but is facing a stone wall of coddled and ill-informed politicians. (Not so surprising!) What is even worse is that we are missing an opportunity top create a host of new jobs in the constructing and monitoring of a nation wide electric grid.

So get up! Get excited! takepart and write your legislator because the faster we act to improve our environment the greater the impact will be.

Jon Moran is a student at Loyola Marymount’s School of Film and Television pursuing a degree in Recording Arts Technology. Hailing from foothills of the Cascade Mountain range in Washington State he was raised to cherish the natural world. He is an avid cyclist and rides more than 200 miles a week in his daily commute and hopes to be part of a new generation which embraces proactive solutions to the worlds problems.

(Photo: ES Flickr photostream