Globes out today with an article about Project Better Place CEO, Shai Agassi’s recent address to the House of Representative’s Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.  Agassi, an Israeli uber-entreprenuer who had sold his software firm to German software giant SAP, had pretty compelling statitics backing his new venture — a venture focused on developing the infrastructure for mass-market electric cars.

Couple of points from Agassi’s presentation

• for the cost of 2 months of oil ($100B), the U.S. could put in place electric car infrastructure to end oil dependence
• for the price of 1 year worth of oil ($500B), the U.S. could “creat[e] fully renewable electrical generation sufficient to power all of the nation’s vehicles”
• Operating costs for electric cars is about $0.06/mile while traditional combustion engines cost $0.16/mile

You can see the entire webcast that took place last week here.  It’s an Interesting discussion and we’ve discussed Agassi’s plans previously on this site.  We’ve also interviewed one of his initial investors, Israel Cleantech.  Shai’s blog is also a good resource for his plans.

Shai and Co. have made a lot of PR success in Israel and it appears that from a partnership perspective, they are putting the pieces together.  Large Israeli investors continue to throw money at cleantech and it appears U.S. investors are also getting bulled up on the project.

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