By YAAKOV KATZ
The IDF is looking into the possibility of purchasing electric cars from the Israeli company Better Place as part of an effort to cut gas costs for the military.
Better Place, a company led by entrepreneur Shai Agassi and former deputy chief of staff Maj.-Gen. (res.) Moshe Kaplinsky, plans to begin marketing electric-powered cars here in 2011.
Agassi founded Better Place in 2007. A year later Israel became the first country to embrace the Better Place model of building open network infrastructure to enable mass adoption of electric vehicles and delivering transportation as a sustainable service, according to the company's Web site.
The cars will be manufactured by Renault-Nissan and the prototype was unveiled at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen last month.
According to the company, Denmark, Australia, California, Hawaii, and Ontario have also joined the initiative and other countries are in discussions with Better Place as well.
'This could work for the IDF," a senior officer from the Logistics Corps explained. "There are many bases where officers come in the morning and leave in the evening and during the day their cars just sit there. Instead, they could be hooked up to a Better Place charger."
In addition to Better Place, the IDF is looking into additional technologies that would relive the military of its dependence on gasoline such as biodiesel - vegetable or animal-based diesel fuel.
Defense officials said that the partnership with Better Place was still under an initial review by Deputy Defense Ministry Director-General Bezalel Treiber.
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