Evaluating only Better Place’s profile at its peak — without knowing the outcome — the model ranked Unit economics as the #1 likely cause. Documented cause: Founder chaos.
Key Events Timeline
FOUNDING
Shai Agassi founds Better Place in Palo Alto, CA
FOUNDING
Better Place founded
FUNDING
Raises $350M; launches pilot networks in Israel and Denmark with Renault as sole hardware partner
CEO CHANGE
Leadership crisis or CEO change
PRODUCT LAUNCH
Full launch in Israel; Renault Fluence ZE sells 1,000 units — 2% of needed volume
SHUTDOWN
SHUTDOWN
Files for bankruptcy with $850M raised; swap stations sold for scrap
SHUTDOWN
Slow Death: Better Place ceases operations
Full Analysis
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Documented cause
Better Place built a network of battery-swapping stations for electric vehicles, raising ~$850M from investors including HSBC and VW. The business model required car manufacturers to design their vehicles around a standardized removable battery — something no major OEM except Renault agreed to do. With a tiny addressable market of Renault Fluence owners and enormous capital requirements for the swap station network, Better Place filed for bankruptcy in Israel in May 2013 having exchanged batteries approximately 1 million times but never approaching viability.
Lesson
“Platform businesses that require incumbents to change their product design have a near-zero probability of success unless the incumbent already owns the platform. Never raise $850M assuming all OEMs will cooperate.”