Israel test bed for car chargers

INTRO: An electric car venture with big ambitions is testing its charging stations in Tel Aviv then plans to take them around the world.

MOREINFO: The firm, based in California, is called Better Place. It's teamed up with automakers NIssan and Renault to get the infrastructure ready to replace polluting, gasoline-powered cars with cleaner-technology electric vehicles.

SCRIPT:

It's green and it's coming to a parking lot near you if you live in Israel - test bed of the latest bit of innovation involving electric cars.

These are charging posts.

Hundreds are being tested in Tel Aviv.

10,000 are to be installed across Israel next year by electric car venture Better Place, based in California.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) TAL AGASSI, DIRECTOR OF INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS AND INTERNATIONAL DEPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT FOR 'BETTER PLACE' SAYING:

"What you are seeing here is the first step of the vision that Better Place has spread out in the past few years in the world of having a vision of sustainable, clean transportation in the next coming years."

It's a 200-million dollar bid to get more of us trading in our gas-guzzlers for electric cars.

The system runs on electricity - so it's not pollution-free yet - but company executives say a switch could one day be made to sustainable energy sources.

(SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) DAN WEINSTOCK, GRID MANAGER AT BETTER PLACE, SAYING:

"The production of electricity in all of the countries and in particular in Israel is going more and more towards renewable energies, of natural gas. Whoever moves towards consuming electricity and the electric vehicle will produce in the future less pollution."

Nissan and Renault are working with the company on electric car infrastructure.

They've got big plans - by 2010 they hope to go global on a mass commercial scale.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) TAL AGASSI, DIRECTOR OF INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS AND INTERNATIONAL DEPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT FOR 'BETTER PLACE', SAYING:

"On day one, when we start going commercial we are going to have about 100,000 charge points installed over here in Israel and in multiple countries we are going to have enough infrastructure that should allow every driver to go throughout the country without feeling that he is going to get stuck because we are going to be in every place."

In every place there's a gas station, the aim is to give drivers a greener choice, a place to charge up their electric cars and drive for up to four hours without needing another boost.

Susan Flory, Reuters