Shai Agassi, the electric car evangelist, looked haggard but vindicated at the Paris Auto Show last week.  Mr. Agassi, a former software executive, wants to make electric cars a mass-market product.  To do so, electric cars need to carry a mass-market price.

He doesn’t think that the Volt will work because it’ll be too expensive.

“The Volt is a $20,000 car that will cost $40,000. It will be a niche product,” Mr. Agassi says. “We want to make electric cars a mass market thing, and the only way to do that is to make it cheaper than driving a regular car.”

He wants to sell people the car at a price that is lower than regular cars of equivalent luxury/quality and then rent the battery pack and charge for access to recharging stations.

Source: WSJ

It’ll take time but the short answer is yes.  The long answer is that renting or leasing the batteries would be a good option for a lot of people out there.  I’m among those that think battery technology has a ways to go before I think it’ll last a few hundred thousand miles reliably and I don’t want the expense of replacing a battery pack after just a few years.  But if I could just rent the battery pack from the manufacturer then when there’s a problem I just go get a new one, done and done.  Take the risk out of my hands for a few dollars a month and I’ll gladly rent the battery.

I don’t think his idea of charging for access to recharging stations would work.  Would everyone that buys an electric vehicle from him have to have one in their garage?  Could you take it with you on a long trip?  It would probably eat up some valuable space that should go to luggage or something else on those longer trips.  Or is he thinking you put them all over the country like gas stations?  If that’s the case then it’ll take me 6-8 hours to fill up my tank, no thanks.  Plus you have to build all of them first before anyone would buy this car.  I like his battery rental idea, but he needs to face reality about charging for the ability to recharge.