Charging Up for Electric Cars

Car photo: Jim Lo Scalzo/MCT/Newscom; Hula Dancer photo: Getty Images

Hawaii is about to embark on an electric car experiment that, if successful, could consign gas stations to a bygone era.

“We want to get off oil,” Hawaii energy official Ted Peck says of his state’s part­nership with Better Place LLC, a California company aiming to reduce the country’s addiction to petroleum through a network of auto charging stations.

Better Place, which has agreements with automaker Nissan, as well as with Denmark and Israel, is to install thousands of stations throughout Hawaii this year, laying the groundwork for large-scale electric car use by 2012.

Hawaii’s access to renewable energy resources like solar and wind makes it an ideal location to serve as a blueprint for reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, says Shai Agassi, Better Place founder and CEO. Better Place will also swap old car batteries for fresh ones, and subscribers will pay a predetermined fee.

Hawaii’s proposed electric car plan should be of special interest to older citizens, Peck says. “We know that seniors are often on fixed incomes, and the cost of energy is often an uncontrollable variable,” he says. “We want to fix that.”