I finally got around to reading last month's Wired magazine, which included a feature story on the electric car company, Better Place. While I was struck by the incredible aspirations of this company, as a communicator, I was even more impressed by the way their business model helps to tear down the walls to an expanding green economy.

Over and over again we hear about how the infrastructure hurdles prevent some of the wholesale changes necessary in the energy sector. But Better Place's business concepts remind us that the changes aren't so daunting by connecting with a pair of technologies that have emerged, completely new, in recent decades.

You've probably used them today.

Got a mobile phone in your pocket?

Did you get cash out of an ATM this week?

Before you listen to the green energy doubters shouting about infrastructure limitations, think about how quickly those technologies emerged in the last two decades. They move to ubiquity in a very short period of time---even without government subsidies---through the rapid development of new infrastructure.

We've gone from executive brick phones to ubiquitous clam shells and Blackberries in no time.

And there's an ATM on every block here in downtown Chicago. Heck, I've used them on four continents!

In both cases, infrastructure was developed from scratch. Think about mobile phones. With the proper market signal, corporate players managed to get cell phone towers in place quickly all over the world. In two decades, the mobile phone companies have even changed out the technology infrastructure already----we don't even have cell phones anymore, all the carriers have shifted over to digital networks.

And that is where Better Place comes into play. Their business model assumes that batteries will take the place of the gas tank in your current car. Instead of paying at the pump---you'd enter into a recharging contract kind of like you your current mobile phone agreement (but using miles instead of minutes). You'd pull up to their charging centers to freshen or change out batteries. GM's Volt would be your Motorola RAZR; Better Place would be Sprint or US Cellular...

Sounds aggressive? No way they can build this out? They are starting now with contracts to build in Israel and Denmark. And they are in discussion with the state of Hawaii.

Small places no doubt, but if this works expect the business model of using cell phone-like plans to help reduce higher up front costs of green technologies to spread like wildfire.

Competition will sprout up and rather than thinking about whether we can build out the electric car infrastructure---you are going to have to worry about whether you want to pay the surcharge to juice up at one of Better Place's competitor's stations... The same mental math you probably make at the ATM.

So, is Better Place for real? Beats me. There are doubters out there. So I'll leave it up to Roland, Luke, or Deron in the Vehicles program to decide the merits on that front. But I do love its implications for messaging and conceptualizing quick action on the electric car front and getting people's heads around that issue is almost as important these days.