New model for electric car business: selling miles instead of cars

[yurbud]

There are times when the private sector does it right: when the innovation is applied to actual PRODUCTS and SERVICES not Wall Street Ponzi schemes and scams to enrich trust fund babies so another ten generations of their descendants won't have to get real real jobs.

Agassi’s business plan is unique among electric-car service providers. Others will make the vehicles. He will lease the batteries to car owners, and sell access to his switching and charging network. He expects to make his money selling miles, much as a cellphone-service provider sells minutes. Subscribers to Agassi’s plan would be entitled to pull into a roadside switching station for a battery change or to plug into a charging station, where dozens of other cars might also be hooked up, for an overnight or workday charge. Agassi estimates his customers will pay no more for battery power than they would spend on gasoline to travel the same distance. As business grows and costs fall, Agassi says, profits will soar. He says eventually he might give cars away, just as cellular-service providers offer free phones to customers with long-term contracts.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/40th-anniversary/Charging-Ahead-With-a-New-Electric-Car.html#ixzz0w8qrdYZ9