Project Better Place #2: Denmark to combine electric cars with wind energy

Project Better Place had its first strike of success in Israel, now Denmark becomes the second country that is definitely planning to go ahead with electric cars and the related infrastructure.

The difference between the two? Unlike Israel, Denmark has a huge wind energy generation base that on average provides 20% of the country’s needs. At night, when wind produced energy exceeds demand, the extra electricity will be used to charge the batteries of plug-in Renault cars -Renault-Nissan is the automotive partner of Project Better Place. The necessary 500,000 charging spots and 150 battery swap stations will be built by DONG, Denmark’s electricity company. In that respect, things will be much like in Israel, with drivers not owning the batteries and freely exchanging depleted batteries as necessary. Car batteries will also play the role of energy storage to take account of the fact that energy generation is unpredictable.

Chrysler to have Internet as standard in all its cars

Chrysler does not only want to rely on car design for its future. As a result, full Internet functionality will be added to existing models this year and later on will be installed from the assembly line throughout the model range.

It is doubtful that this is a response to BMW’s plans for Internet in its new X6 model. By all signs, car gadgetry is taking pivotal role in customer choices and obviously Detroit wants to be in the game.