Before 2020, says Israel’s entrepreneurial sweetheart, electric cars will be flying off the showroom floor faster than gasoline-powered automobiles.

“It doesn’t mean that oil is not necessary, but we’re starting the way out…In Israel, in 2016, plus or minus a year, more electric cars will be sold than gasoline cars. When that happens in Country One, within two years you will see it in every country.”

Better Place Electric Vehicle ChargersBefore the end of the year there will be 56 stations b’Eretz and 5,000 cars produced. In 2012, Denmark, Australia, Hawaii and the San Francisco Bay Area will fall in line.

Agassi has raised some $700m and spent one-third of it on setting up recharging stations. This leaves him with enough cash to absorb losses assuring his breaking even with the initial steps of the venture.

Shai did not shy away from expressing his enthusiasm to the press:

“Israel will become the first country in the world to put 100,000 all-electric cars on the road…Not the US. Not China. Not countries much bigger – Israel!…From 2000 to 2010, China added 120 million cars on the road (and) next year, 25 to 30 million..It’s no longer the US that sets the price (of oil). Now it’s a question of how many cars were added in China, how many were added in Brazil, how many were added in India…The end of the oil era will not come because we ran out of oil – it will come become we don’t want to use oil any more to drive…I can guarantee you that we will finish the need for oil as an energy source for cars before we run out of oil in the ground.”