And here in Canberra we got this mess ...

MAY 25 2019

Ten years ago, the ACT government embraced a radical battery-swapping electric vehicle concept called Better Place.

Around a dozen electric charging stations were set up, with Canberra's short commuting distances touted as the ideal roll-out location for the limited range Better Place batteries.

But within a few years, Better Place had gone belly-up and taken $25 million worth of local investment with it...

The decade-old Better Place battery swap concept, which completely swapped out your car's depleted battery pack much like slipping a big D-cell battery out of your Dolphin torch, was seen as a practical solution to the recharging time issue.

At the time Better Place was touted as the next big thing in transportation, attracting $850 million in funding from the likes of Morgan Stanley, General Electric and the HSBC Group.

And Canberra was seen as the logical national launch pad.

The clincher - or so it was thought - was when one of the world's largest car companies, Nissan-Renault, agreed to build vehicles specifically to suit the Better Place swap-out design.

But that's where the idea foundered. Rival car companies didn't embrace the idea, the driving range was too short, and the roll-out of battery-swapping stations took too long...