If you believe Shai Agassi, we’ve been looking at the concept of the electric car all wrong; it isn’t just a product-it’s a service. That’s the thinking underpinning the young IsraeliAmerican entrepreneur’s fledgling company, Project Better Place, and it’s catching on. Last month the California-based start-up announced a US$42.3-million project with Danish energy firm DONG to establish a network of electric cars in Denmark by 2011. In partnership with Renault-Nissan-which will provide electric versions of its cars, including the popular Mégane-Project Better Place has developed a business model that may finally hold the key to widespread consumer adoption of electric vehicles.

The template for their strategy is the cellular-telephone industry: install the infrastructure yourself-in Denmark’s case, some 20,000 recharging stations nationwide; subsidize the cost of the instrument (the car)-made possible via partnerships with auto and battery manufacturers; and sell the service (the batteries and electricity, which will come, in part, from DONG’s wind turbines) via a subscription model. Each battery will get drivers 150 km down the road, and when run down they can be quickly swapped for fresh ones at recharging stations. The Danish deal was the second major announcement for Project Better Place this year; in January they unveiled an agreement with the state of Israel to create a vehicle network in that country that will see 100,000 electric cars on the road by the end of 2010. And Agassi says the Danish and Israeli initiatives are just the beginning-he says he is in discussions with 30 other countries worldwide about launching their own electric auto grids.-Jordan Timm