More than a decade ago, a high-flying startup called Better Place made a billion-dollar bet that electric car drivers would prefer to swap depleted batteries for fresh ones in minutes rather than charge them for hours. At the time, most EVs had 75-mile ranges and chargers were slow, few and far between.
But soon after Better Place launched its battery-switching stations in 2012, Elon Musk unveiled a free fast-charging network that would serve drivers of Teslas, then (and now) the most popular brand of electric vehicle. Within months of Musk’s announcement, Better Place went bankrupt, leaving investors that included Morgan Stanley, General Electric and HSBC out more than $750 million.
