Word: renault
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That didn't stop car manufacturers like Toyota and BMW from pulling out of the sport anyway (Honda had quit at the end of 2008.) That leaves only three major carmakers - Ferrari (owned by Fiat), Mercedes-Benz and Renault (though the latter recently sold a majority stake in the racing team to Luxembourg investment firm Genii Capital) - still in F1. "The sport just wasn't delivering the value," says John Howett, head of Toyota Motor Sports. For the new season, some of the old names have been replaced by entrepreneurs with more dash than cash. Ecclestone calls the new teams...
Then there are the scandals, and the last few seasons' have been turbocharged doozies. First, in 2007, McLaren was fined $100 million after an engineer was caught with documents supplied by a rogue Ferrari employee. Then, last September, one of F1's most flamboyant team managers, Renault's Flavio Briatore, was barred from the sport for life after the FIA determined that he had ordered one of his drivers to crash in a 2008 race to help out Renault's other driver - Alonso, in this case. Briatore is still fighting the ban. (In January, a French court overturned...
...promised not to impose the normal vehicle-registration tax of 180% on electric cars until 2012 - a tax break of at least $40,000 for early buyers - and to provide drivers with free parking in downtown Copenhagen. Not only that, but the company has signed a deal with Renault to supply 100,000 cars - the company's new Fluence ZE model - to Denmark and Israel by 2016. (See the history of the electric...
...Indeed, the chances of failure are high. Already, Better Place has run into problems with Renault over Denmark's promised tax exemptions. Last year, the former Climate and Energy Minister, Connie Hedegaard, suggested the government might extend the tax break until 2015, but months later, a decision on that has yet to be made. "If we don't get a clarification, then we at Renault want to focus on other countries for the first electric cars," head of Renault Denmark, Henrik Bang, told the Berlingske Tidende newspaper last month. Renault has since reaffirmed its commitment to the project, and Denmark...
...then there's the lack of a standardized European plug and socket. Germany, with Renault's support, is pushing its seven-point version to be the standard, but other countries have their own ideas of what the connectors should look like. "Because Europe is fragmented and countries are putting forth their cars, it's going to be more difficult to come to a federal conclusion," says Calum MacRae, an automotive expert with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London. "Obviously, if you standardize [the connectors], you bring the cost down." And when it comes to selling the public on electric cars, price will...