I was entering a parking lot at Bar Ilan university near Tel Aviv and noticed a brand new sign near the pay booth (left photo). I couldn’t believe my eyes… the sign says, in case Hebrew is Greek to you: “Parking for electric cars. Better place“.

Of course we’ve all read about Better Place, Shai Agassi’s start-up company that is planning to convert the entire state of Israel to electric cars, by providing a nationwide infrastructure of charging points and by adding to gas stations robotic systems that will replace spent batteries with fully charged ones in less time than it takes you to fuel your gas guzzler. This is all very exciting, but it was all on paper, and prone to skepticism. Shai Agassi, admittedly, had recruited the support of president Peres, obtained venture capital, and signed a contract with Nissan to make the electric cars… but it remained a case of “we’ll believe it when we see it”.

Well – now I’ve seen it, or at least the first signs of it, and not on paper. The sign on the right, inside the parking lot, directs you to “Charging stations” – and on following it I found myself looking at a bunch of parking spaces painted green, with white poles in front of them (see one under the tree in the photo below) that you’d connect an electric car to. There was also an RFID sensor to debit your account for the energy.

Admittedly, the cars parked there were same old same old internal combustion models… the attendant told me the stations had been set up two weeks before and were not yet functional. But there can be no doubt: these guys mean business – green business! Well worth an off-topic post on my blog…

2013 update: Better Place is gone, leaving our world a sadder place.