GE and Better Place partner on EV projects

GE recently kicked off a major advertising campaign for its WattStation charger. Photo credit GE.

Electric vehicle charging startup Better Place and General Electric (NYSE: GE) say they’re teaming up to speed up electric vehicle rollout—and to boost one another’s EV infrastructure offerings.

The companies in September announced the partnership, part of which includes making GE’s recently unveiled car charger, the WattStation, compatible with Better Place’s charging network.

GE and Better Place also say they will finance 10,000 batteries in Israel and Denmark, the first markets in which Bay Area-based Better Place plans to roll out its EV charging infrastructure, and collaborate on pilot projects in North America—including in San Francisco—Europe, Asia and Australia to electrify corporate vehicle fleets.

For Better Place, which closed a $350 million Series B funding round earlier this year, GE’s massive scale and experience with renewables, utilities and smart grid technologies will help the company bring its technology into a global market, Better Place executive Amit Nisenbaum wrote on the company’s blog. And that market—for electric vehicle management, including charging—is expected to be worth $1.5 billion by 2015, according to a 2010 report from Pike Research.

The companies also plan to focus on consumer awareness. GE has gotten a jump on that with the high-profile launch of the WattStation in San Francisco earlier this year, and a three-month television and print advertising campaign that kicked off in September.