With the governments all over the world working towards environmental conservation, the mayors of San Francisco and other Bay Area cities have promised to smear the region with electric-vehicle charging stations. On Thursday, they divulged plans to work with Palo Alto start-up called Better Place on a $1 billion plan to build re-charging infrastructure needed to bring more electric cars on to the roads and aim to set up the system in place by 2012.

Headed by an ex-SAP executive Shai Agassi, Better Place will soon put in 250,000 charging ports, 200 battery-exchange stations and a control center to service electric cars at businesses, public parking places and homes. With backing from Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Australia’s Macquarie Capital Group, Agassi doesn’t plan to ask the cities for money. The start-up will give customers an electric vehicle with company’s batteries at a reduced rate with a subscription to drive a certain number of miles.

Better Place will be working with Renault-Nissan to supply electric cars and foresees a range of electric vehicles from General Motors, Toyota, Silicon Valley electric-car startup Tesla Motors and others for Bay Area. Very soon, the region will rise to be the country’s electric car capital.

Source: MercuryNews