How Better Place Came to a Bitter End

A battery-swapping startups innovative system for charging electric vehicles suffered from overreach and limited consumer demand.

Better Place, which raised some $850 million to build a charging infrastructure for electric cars, said this week it will liquidate its assets after failing to find more financing. Its the end to a bold effort to wean the world from oil by innovating with software and business models, rather than with electric vehicle technology itself.