Better Place user David Rose w/keys to Renault Fluence ZE electric car in Israel [photo: David Rose]

  With no local fanfare or announcements, electric car network provider Better Place has started delivering cars to its first paying customers in Israel.

One the first customers is David Rose, who reserved his car in October 2011. His home charging spot was installed a month after he submitted his reservation, and he waited until last week to receive his car.

Better Place has had a fleet of around 100 Renault Fluence ZE cars in the hands of employees since January, who use them on the country's roads.

In Israel, Better Place sells the Renault sedan without a battery. The sale is combined with a battery lease and a mileage-based subscription plan that includes the cost of the electricity necessary to drive those miles.

Electricity is supplied at owners' homes, public charging stations or via automated battery-switch stations that can replace a drained battery with a full one in 5 minutes. Each of these supply sources is operated and paid for by Better Place.

Installation of the home charging station, which draws electricity from a separate supply, is included in the package cost. Higher-mileage subscribers (those who contract for more than 16,000 miles per year) get two charging stations, usually for home and work.

The subscriber sees no bills from the electric utility for the added power devoted to car charging.

Controversially, no electric car will be permitted to operate in Israel without this subscription package. Legally, charging electric vehicles from normal domestic electricity supply is not allowed.

Fully networked smart grids--and Better Place has the only one at present--are the only allowable outlets to recharge electric vehicles, in the name of protecting Israel's electric grid.

Aside from the Renault Fluence ZE available through Better Place, no other plug-in electric vehicle is offered for sale in Israel today. This has been a source of criticism as it sets Better Place up as the sole supplier of electrified personal transport.

Rose's car was delivered to his home on a car transporter with a fully-charged battery. He voluntarily opted to take the car with a full pack of promotional stickers and labels announcing it as an electric car.

The car replaces a Mazda6 sedan, one of the most popular mid-size cars in Israel and one that's heavily used by fleets.

Better Place says its Fluence ZE is competitive on price and features with the smaller Mazda3 compact. Rose calculates that at the current pump price (roughly $8 per US Gallon), he will save at least $200 per month after paying the fixed subscription cost for electricity.

Rose says the car will be used primarily for his wife's drive to work, a round trip of 66 miles through the northern hills of Israel above the Sea of Galilee (known locally as the Kinneret).

After his first drive along the route, the car returned home with 26 percent charge remaining in the battery. That reserve correlated well to the prediction shown by the integrated GPS system.

Rose says the GPS system has already alerted him to heavy traffic, leading him to deviate from his usual route: the crowd-sourced iPhone app Waze gave him similar information. He's already noticed, however, that slow-moving heavy traffic extends the car's range.

Rose is now waiting for his wife's employer (an Israeli regional council) to give belated permission for Better Place to install a second charge spot at her office--as included in his subscription plan--to allow all-day charging.

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