Nissan and ECOtality envision an even Better Place

On the face of it, it sounds like yet another electric vehicle charging network.

But today's announcement that automaker Nissan (NASDAQ: NSANY) is forming a partnership with electric vehicle charging pioneer ECOtality (OTCBB: ETLY) in the Tucson, Arizona area, is a calculated counter to the battery swapping approach promoted by Better Place, formerly Project Better Place.

Today's memorandum of understanding between ECOtality, the Pima Association of Governments, which represents the Tucson, Arizona region, and Nissan is aimed at developing a high speed electric vehicle charging network in Pima county and the city of Tucson, based on chargers by ECOtality.

ECOtality said it partnered with Nissan because it expects Palo Alto, Calif.-based Better Place has strategically miscalculated, and that battery swapping systems will be proven unfeasible in the face of fast charging networks, which will leave vehicles' batteries alone.

"It takes 10 or 15 minutes to fast charge, which isn't going to be much quicker or slower than swapping a battery, and certainly a lot less moving parts and potential points of failure. Let alone the capital costs required to build a battery swap infrastructure," said Jonathan Read, ECOtality President and CEO.

"Batteries are going to get larger. Range is going to get greatly improved. The amount of energy that you're going to pour into a vehicle in a given timeframe is going to increase shortly," he told the Cleantech Group today.

ECOtality provides electric vehicle charging systems and infrastructure and works with utilities and vehicle manufacturers.

Having installed 5,500 charging stations around the world, including the original charging systems for General Motors' (NYSE: GM) original EV1 electric vehicle, CEO Read positions his company as "at loggerheads" with Better Place.

"Nissan is putting their own special sauce into their battery. I don't think we'll ever get to a situation where we have unitary batteries, as envisioned by Better Place, because there will always be new technologies, with companies vying to be better than the next," said Read.

Moreover, Read questions whether Better Place's recent announcements have all been legitimate.

"When one calls the city of San Francisco and other places, you find that they don't have any contracts with Better Place (see Bay Area to get infrastructure for electric vehicles)," he said.

"It's a lot of work," he said of the company's experience in installing EV power systems. "Grand schemes [like Better Place's] are wonderful, but boots on the ground with the experience of actually putting in wiring and dealing with this stuff is all important, and it's what we do for a living."

Shares of bulletin board-traded ECOtality, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, were up almost 30 percent today, closing at $.04 a share.

Nissan, which had previously announced two projects with Better Place (see
Electric cars are coming to Israel and Project Better Place goes to Denmark) is now soft-pedaling the relationship, and keeping its options open.

"We remain open to future discussions," said Mark Perry, director of product planning for Nissan North America.

"We don't think there's one answer globally," he told the Cleantech Group, but noted "you can accomplish fast charging with existing technologies and a lot less capital expenditure."

He also said Nissan "had not made any agreements with Better Place in the United States."

Nissan expects it will be the first major automaker with a mass produced fully electric (i.e. not a plug in hybrid electric vehicle, or PHEV, which still incorporates a gasoline engine) passenger sedan, aiming for 2010 introduction.

The company has not yet named the vehicle, but expects it to get 100 miles per charge. Insiders expect it to be priced similar, or less, than Toyota's popular Prius.

"We want the payback for immediate for the consumer," said Perry.

Perry also downplayed early pictures of the vehicle that have appeared on the Internet, calling them pictures of an early test prototype "mule."