Better Place Founder & CEO, Shai Agassi, recently outlined his vision for a future free of oil dependence in The Economist. Agassi argues that China and Israel are leading the way in attaining this goal by electrifying their transport systems. Countries and states, he believes, can benefit greatly by following in their footsteps: "Moving the transport sector to reliance on electrons—with an open menu of electricity sources and a massive distributed storage of car batteries to improve the grid and allow higher reliance on renewable sources—can build industries, create jobs and improve economic, environmental and national security all at once."

Better Place is a venture-backed startup based in Palo Alto. The company is set to launch the first nationwide vehicle-charging and battery-switching network in Israel in 2011. For more information on Better Place, please click here.