Startup to wire Israeli parking lots with electric car chargers

Israeli motorists can soon start pumping their cars full of electricity instead of gasoline at a Tel Aviv area parking lot. The Palo Alto, California-based Project Better Place unveiled its first car-charging station, the latest step in its plan to get a large number of electric cars on Israel's roads in the next few years. About 400 parking spaces are wired to charge electric cars, mainly in and around Tel Aviv. Pini Leiberman said on Monday that the company hopes to wire 100,000 spaces around Israel by 2010. The charging stations are meant to power a fleet of cars being built in partnership with Better Place by the Renault-Nissan Alliance. If the schedule holds, Israel would be one of the first countries to have a significant electric car presence.