Daniel M. Kammen
Incremental and
Transformational Change
Innovations Case Discussion:
Better Place
Shai Agassi’s story of his evolving personal interest in energy issues, and the evolv-
ing business plan of his electric vehicle company, Better Place, provides an impor-
tant lens on the pace and drivers of innovation.
First, as Shai describes, his interest in energy issues evolved from his great suc-
cess in the software industry. As a successful entrepreneur, Shai became inspired by
the imperative to change our energy economy, and he recognized that his back-
ground and drive might be a unique advantage in becoming an agent of innova-
tion and change.
The transportation sector critically needed, and still needs, this sort of fresh
look and novel business model. For a period in the late 1970s and early 1980s, aver-
age vehicle economy in the United States rose steadily, due to the requirements for
greater fuel efficiency through the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) stan-
dards and the lingering worries over oil prices from the two oil embargoes of the
1970s. After that, however, little changed in the transportation sector. In fact, look-
ing at Figure 1, we can see a clear trade-off in the trends in vehicle efficiency and
performance: gains in vehicle efficiency were sacrificed for performance. Perhaps
improvements in both could have been achieved. Undeniable, however, is the
decades of stagnation in improvements in energy efficiency, financial savings, or
carbon savings.
The petro-politics of the 1980–2005 period were tumultuous, including the
Iran-Iraq war, the first and second gulf wars, and the ascension of Japanese car
companies to a leading global position. Out of that period, different nations and
Daniel M. Kammen is the Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy at the
University of California, Berkeley, where he holds appointments in the Energy and
Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the Department of
Nuclear Engineering. Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and
Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) and the co-Director of the Berkeley Institute
of the Environment, and he directs the Transportation Sustainability Research Center.
Kammen is a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
© 2009 Daniel M. Kammen
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Daniel M. Kammen
Figure 1. Changes in average mile per gallon (MPG), engine horsepower (HP),
vehicle weight, and acceleration (0-60 speed).
The period of dramatic increase in vehicle efficiency from 1975–1983 (CAFÉ standards) can be
seen clearly, as can long-term trends of improved performance despite increasing vehicle weight
over the following three decades. These ‘improvements,’ however, clearly came at the expense of
greater efficiency, which declined slightly over 30 years. Each of the data sets is referenced to a
normalized baseline value of “1” in 1975.
companies took very different lessons. The Japanese began to make greater effi-
ciency—and then hybrid vehicle technology—part of their long-term plans.
Meanwhile no clear message emerged from the U.S. industry, beyond larger and
larger vehicles and some interesting but largely short-lived efforts at developing
electric vehicles.
All this can be seen, in retrospect, as a clarion call for new, fresh, and innova-
tive ideas. Shai Agassi is one of many entrepreneurs who took up the challenge. His
model—leapfrogging over the emerging plug-in hybrid technology to go directly
to pure electric vehicles—is notable and challenging at the same time. The benefit
of pure EV technology, of course, is the complete removal from the car of internal
combustion,and its associated ball-and-chain of engine and fuel weight. The draw-
backs come in the form of a need to build market share today, despite uncertainty
over battery costs, battery-charging standards, and battery technology that will
surely evolve rapidly in the coming years.
In this new and changing landscape, Better Place planted its flag with a much-
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Incremental and Transformational Change
debated and questioned business model that is as innovative as the technology it
embraces. Time will tell if the company can make this transition work; that may
depend as much on the trends in oil prices and battery availability as the cleverness
of the Better Place team. But the message is clear: while many are betting on
improved internal combustion engines and greater efficiency standards, still more
companies see the plug-in hybrid as the next new thing. Each of these views has
merit. The incumbent technology—internal combustion engines—can clearly be
made more efficient although such engines are ultimately limited by the thermo-
dynamics of combustion. Plug-in hybrid vehicles offer a dramatic change—rough-
ly two to three times the efficiency of internal combustion engines, depending on
the carbon content of the electricity supply used to charge the batteries.1 By con-
trast, pure EVs, featured by Better Place and in other emerging models and busi-
ness plans, offer a break from the vehicle designs of today, and could achieve even
larger savings per vehicle, but they face the constraints of the logistics and costs of
access to internal-combustion engine vehicles when needed.
In the end, in fact, this last point may shape the long-term success and popu-
lar judgment of the Better Place model: can the infrastructure needs of the pure
EV vehicle systems model be developed, disseminated, and paid for in ways that
make this business model a true challenger to a combination of improved internal
combustion engine vehicles, plug-in hybrids, better mass transit, and improved
planning? On this front, the jury is out, but we vitally need a diversity of experi-
ments, many of which we can hope will take hold in a low-carbon economy.
Endnote
1. Lemoine, Kammen, & Farrell, 2008.
References
Kammen, D.M., Arons, S., Lemoine, D., & Hummel, H. (2009). “Cost-effectiveness of greenhouse
gas emission reductions from plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.” In D. Sandalow (ed.), Plug-in
Electric Vehicles: What Role for Washington? Washington, DC: Brookings Institute, Chapter 9, pp.
170–191.
Lemoine, D., and Kammen, D.M. (2009). Addendum to “An innovation and policy agenda for com-
mercially competitive plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.” Environmental Research Letters 4, 1–3.
Lemoine, D., Kammen, D.M., and Farrell, A.E. (2008). “An innovation and policy agenda for com-
mercially competitive plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.” Environmental Research Letters 3, 1–8.
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