A Better Place?

Mishy Harman: Hey Brian.

Brian Blum: Hey Mishy.

Mishy Harman: How are you doing?

Brian Blum: I’m doing great.

Mishy Harman: So where… where are we, Brian?

Brian Blum: We’re standing in front of some nice Eucalyptus trees and in front of a car.

Mishy Harman: Your car.

Brian Blum: My car, yeah.

Mishy Harman: I see that it says “Better Place 100% Electric” right on the driver’s door.

Brian Blum: Exactly. So this is the car that the Israeli startup Better Place sold. This is a 100% electric car. That means that there’s no gasoline engine in it at all. There’s just an electric engine in the front and a great big battery in the back that fills up like half the trunk.

Mishy Harman: So should we go for a drive?

Brian Blum: Yeah.

[doors opening and closing]

Mishy Harman: OK, so here we are, we’re in the car.

Brian Blum: Right, and I’m going to start the car. First I’m going to punch in the secret code.

[sound of code]

Brian Blum: Now I’m going to turn the car on. Are you ready?

Mishy Harman: Yup.

[activation clicks and bluetooth beep]

Mishy Harman: Wait, that’s it?

Brian Blum: That’s it. That’s… The car’s on. Do you hear anything?

Mishy Harman: The car is now on?

Brian Blum: The car is on. This is the amazing thing about an all electric car, is there is absolutely no noise.

Mishy Harman: Wow OK, so should we start driving?

Brian Blum: Yeah, but we have a – we have a special passenger. My wife Jody is about to get in the car.

[door opens and closes]

Mishy Harman: Hey Jody, how are you doing?

Jody Blum: Good thank you, it’s a sad day though. Saying goodbye to something.

Mishy Harman (narration): So, you heard Jody mention that it was a sad day for her, that she was saying goodbye to something near and dear. And well, folks, today’s show is a little different than our usual ones. See, our main character, the one Jody was parting with, isn’t exactly Israeli. Or at least isn’t exactly an Israeli person. No, no, no. The hero of our story today is… a car. A car that many hoped would take over the world. But our episode is also about a group of Israelis, not many – maybe about a thousand – who developed an almost religious passion for that car, and would do basically anything to keep that relationship alive. Brian and Jody Blum from Jerusalem bought their 100% electric Renault Fluence Z.E. from an Israeli company called Better Place in 2012. They were among the first customers.

Brian Blum: I wanted an electric car from this company, Better Place, the second I read about it in the introduction to the book ‘Start-up Nation’ by Saul Singer and Dan Senor. They started their entire story about how amazing and different Israel is as a place of entrepreneurship and innovation by telling the story of Better Place. And I read that and I said, when this company is real and when they’re selling cars, we’ve got to get one.

Mishy Harman (narration): Luckily for Brian, he wasn’t alone. Here’s Jody.

Jody Blum: It was a dream of mine to have one. So we went and test drove this car and we decided pretty much on the spot that we were buying it.

Mishy Harman (narration): Brian and Jody never looked back. They were thrilled with their purchase.

Brian Blum: I love the car, really love this car. Love the way that it drives, love the fact that it’s, you know, all electric, love the fact that we were pioneers.

Mishy Harman: Do you think you’re more invested in your car than most people are in their cars?

Brian Blum: Oh for sure, for sure.

Mishy Harman (narration): It wasn’t just by chance that the story of Better Place, the electric car company that sold the Blums their Fluence Z.E., opened up the best-selling book Start-Up Nation. Not that long ago, Better Place symbolized the future. It was the Israeli promise. And pride. It was worth billions, at least on paper, and it was going to change the world as we knew it. In 2007, long before Tesla and Elon Musk became household names, a thirty-nine-year-old Israeli entrepreneur by the name of Shai Agassi came out with an announcement that rattled the world: He was going to revolutionize transportation, make countries oil-free by 2020, and curb the effects of climate change. Agassi was going to put millions and millions of drivers, all around the globe, behind the wheel of an inexpensive electric car, with virtually unlimited range. It didn’t take long before that radical, utopian idea made Agassi a rock star: Bill Clinton was giving him advice, Shimon Peres was singing his praises, he was on the cover of countless magazines and a guest on all the major talk shows. The sustainable future he described was at once rosy and green.