Project Better Place Stacking Its Global Chips, Aids Japan

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Project Better Place is making new country partnerships look like taking candy from a baby, with their latest announcement to include the country of Japan as it’s next place to develop electric car infrastructure. Technically, they didn’t sign the country of Japan on as they did in Denmark, Israel, Australia, San Francisco, and most recently Hawaii, they’ve simply joined a government pilot program with Fuji Heavy Industries, maker of Suburu vehicles called “Ministry of the Environment.”
The difference between this program and Better Place’s program in Israel, Denmark and Australia is that they won’t be developing charging stations, they’ll be focusing exclusively on battery-swapping locations. The program will begin in January 2009 and will last 3-6 months, opening the first battery swapping location in Kanagawa.
One thing I find curious is that Nissan-Renault isn’t mentioned once in the new Japan based program. Better Place established awhile ago that they’d be partnering with the car giant to provide electric cars, which is odd that they’d put themselves in cahoots with a competing Japanese manufacturer like Suburu.
More to come, I’m sure.