Better Place

Better Place raised $850M to build a global network of battery-swapping stations for electric vehicles. The vision was compelling: pull into a station, swap your depleted battery for a charged one in minutes, and drive away. But the company tried to build both the cars AND the infrastructure simultaneously across multiple countries. The proprietary system only worked with one car model (a modified Renault Fluence). By 2013, Better Place had sold fewer than 1,500 cars and built swap stations that sat mostly empty. The timing was premature—EV adoption was years away from critical mass—and the technology bet was wrong: fast charging ultimately won over battery swapping. The $850M lesson: don't build infrastructure for demand that doesn't yet exist.