Electric car startup Better Place goes bust

Better Place, an Isreali company that used switchable batteries to charge electric cars, has gone bust. On a long road trip, specially equipped electric cars could drive to Better Place stations where a robot would swap depleted batteries with a freshly charged ones in just a few minutes.

Denmark and Israel were trying it. There was interest in Hawaii, and the company’s vision was to some day build battery swapping stations across the U.S., starting with major arteries such as I-95 in the East, and I-5 in the West. But now the company has gone out of business.

Sam Jaffe, research analyst at Navigant Research who has watched the ups and downs of the company, joins Marketplace Morning Report host David Brancaccio to discuss.