The Israeli government is sponsoring a campaign to encourage widespread use of electric cars.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signed a deal Monday with Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn under which the automotive conglomerate will produce electric cars for mass distribution in Israel beginning in 2011.
Project Better Place, a company headed by Israeli venture capitalist Shai Agass, will construct a national grid of thousands of stations where the cars can be recharged.
The signatories said Israel would be a proving ground for turning electric cars into the mass transit of choice in an era of oil jitters and environmental concerns.
According to Olmert, the government hopes to eliminate gasoline-based transportation in Israel by 2020.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
