Why develop a battery Open Source?
Today's Electric Vehicles (EV) have a low range while having a high price. The batteries are too expensive while being too weak. Additionally the infrastructure to load EVs is still barely developed. To use EVs the same way as we use vehicles powered by a combustion engine today, we need a comprehensive network formed by vehicles, infrastructure and power supply.
At the moment there are manufacturers of automobiles and batteries and companies for infrastructure and electric energy that formed alliances trying to develop proprietary networks. But why not using all available energy, knowledge and information to develop one comprehensive network that can be used by everybody. Just as we can use every gas station with every manufacturer's car today it should be possible to drive every power station with every EV tomorrow.
When the battery is a piece of Open Hardware and all information about it is freely available a car manufacturer can incorporate the design of this battery in the design of it's cars while an infrastructural company can provide interfaces so this infrastructure can be used by cars empowered by the Open Source Battery.
Think about Better Place: Instead of just provide batteries that fits in Nissans and Renaults they could extend their range to Open Source Batteries so that they can make deals with drivers of cars using this Open Design too. Vice versa, car manufacturers who incorporate the Open Source Battery in their car's design can provide products that can use Better Place's infrastructure.
While the knowledge of the Open Source Battery is a public good it can be produced by every person and every company. Thanks to the rules of the free market the price of the Open Battery will drop.
Let's start now!
More
- Open Source Battery (Exposé, german)
- Open Hardware (german)
English versions comming soon.
Contact
Enno Wichmann
Schönhauser Allee 84
10439 Berlin
