נגד ההתנגדות של מדינת ישראל לקידום המכונית החשמלית

By Yariv Zilberman
The speech was presented in the frame Public speaking workshop

I will talk today about the opposition to the State of Israel's aid to finance the electric car.

In recent years, global awareness of health and the quality of the environment is gaining momentum. As a result of the growing awareness, Shay Agassi established a senior SAP The former global your company BETTER PLACE Asher company's goal is to develop and produce the Asher electric car You will solve for the State of Israel the problems of air pollution and dependence on oil (in the Arab world) and, bottom line, an environmentally friendly car.

The question asked here, is this really an agreement that makes a lot of sense, for all parties? For Renault-Nissan and Shai Agassi, the answer is "yes": they are indeed risking millions of dollars, but it is - especially in the case of Renault - "small money". In exchange for their money, they receive no less than a commitment by the State of Israel to grant unprecedented tax benefits to an electric car. This means large financial gains from the establishment of the necessary infrastructure for Agassi, and an experimental field on a national scale for Renault.

Why start with us? According to the French, the Israeli market is an excellent testing platform for this type of new technology. The reason for this lies in the nature of the State of Israel, where all the major cities (Beer-Sheva and Haifa, for example) are at a distance of no more than 150 km from the center of the country - Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Moreover, in Israel 90% of the drivers travel less than 70 km per day.

I am in favor of such a project, but not funded by the State of Israel. These are significant tax benefits that will cause a loss of millions in taxes - tax exemption, reduced license fee, reduced value in use, tax exemption on the import of batteries. Currently, the Israeli government is prohibited from entering into this project for three reasons:
1. Connecting capital and government -Connecting leadership with money is forbidden because it leads to corruption and represents the interest of the capitalists
2. lack of economic viability - In a small country like ours, we will be a kind of pilot for the whole world.
3. environmental- We will transfer the pollution from the exhausts to the intakes of the power plants

Argument 1. Capital and government - The combination of capital and power is not a healthy thing when money and power come together, especially in the State of Israel where most of the politicians who sit there are not there because of the state's interest but because of their personal interest - an example from the past of capital and power is "The Greek island affair" in which Dodi Apple is the owner of the money and has good connections in the government institutions, especially with the Likud and Shas "according to the indictment, a summary of her letter in YNET Published on January 21, 2004, Apple believed that if he strengthened ties with Greek public figures with status and influence, he would be able to change the designation of the land on which he wanted to establish the tourist site. In this framework, Apple worked to invite high-ranking people for visits to Israel, in state or official Iztala, and to bring them together with high-ranking officials in Israel and other indirect bribery, among other things, and also used high-ranking people to meet with those high-ranking officials from Greece in order to promote his business, he promised the Prime Minister's son Ariel Sharon 10,000$ per month and another bonus of one million dollars for joining the project (a source of indirect bribery) (even though he did not have the appropriate experience).

In the case of the electric car, the state does not enter as a partner in the project and the company, but rather it will finance part of the costs in various forms that are valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, in other words the state will finance the rich.
The electric car project is not something completely new, companies are already developing new cars such as General Motors, Piago which has already arrived in Israel.
the partners in the company BETTER PLACE They are the Renault-Nissan concern, the Ofer brothers, Shay Agassi and other investors who are all wealthy. To explain to you a little who are the Ofer brothers? The controlling owners of the Israel company, now buy Israel Chemicals, bank owners, hotels, shopping centers, real estate assets and many other activities in Israel and the world, this means they have the funding for the project so I ask why they need government funding? Why would this project be Need huge tax breaks? After all, they are the ones who will end up raking the money into their pockets - it is true that the state helps a lot of entrepreneurs, but entities like Renault, the Ofer brothers and other wealthy entrepreneurs who will rake the money into their pockets have no justification for the money from the state, the state promotes the sales of the project from the very beginning. Abnormal activity:
For example - according to an article published on the Marker website on November 20, 2007 under the name Association OMT: "Agassi did not present a business plan but will receive government support" The article deals with expediting the request of the entrepreneurs in the project for government benefits even though they did not act as usual and as a result a petition of the Courage movement was submitted.

"Ometz Association - Citizens for Proper Administration and Social Justice - raised concerns that the government adopted the project due to Ofer's connections with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "According to information that has reached us from authorized sources, Olmert and you are pushing to speed up the fulfillment of the entrepreneurs' request for government benefits as part of shortcuts. This, even though they did not act according to the convention"

Here is another proof that there is an improper relationship between capital and government.

And here is a reinforcement from the chief scientist - no organized business plan was submitted, only ideas were presented and there were no R&D and technology plans, and the government approved the funding of the plan, which does not usually happen: in an article published on the De Marker website on 12.19.2007 "In the name of Shay Agassi, one should do homework "
This week it was the turn of the Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Science and Technology, Eli Ofer, to tell us that the king is naked. "If I know what the technological plan is and what the research and development (R&D) behind it is, I will be able to assess its technological feasibility, as is usually done in my offices", said Ofer, who heads a committee appointed by the government for a technological evaluation of the project.

The chief scientist continues and says:
“Feasibility testing can be done on the basis of facts, not on the basis of ideas, and in the meantime I have only been presented with ideas. I need something concrete to express an opinion." What was presented bears no resemblance to what a chief scientist does, when he checks R&D plans and derives from them timetables and realization possibilities.

"In the electric car project there is no R&D and technology plan, only ideas. There are papers scattered in all kinds of offices, but not at the level we are used to checking. That's why I can't give a professional opinion about the technological feasibility, but only a general assessment," Oper added.

According to the things presented in the article, it can be understood that something pulled the strings to get government encouragement

My second argument is economic inefficiency – I think and believe that such a project is not worthwhile for a country the size of Israel for 4 reasons, each of which I will briefly mention:
1. Electricity prices are rising all the time, try to look back a year, there were only increases in electricity prices, also in the last three years the prices of batteries have risen to almost 100%.
What this means is that the price of filling the battery will increase.
Example - the electricity market is not stable and the prices are only on the rise, it is a matter of time until the price of electricity rises and equals the prices of fuel Then the project will not be worthwhile.

2. The State of Israel is too small to provide for the car companies and to justify research and development and also the State takes on the safety risks which can cause the death of people. Below is an article published on the Marker website on March 27, 2008 under "Want an electric car? Not at our expense“

Experience in the world shows that electric cars still cannot compete in price and quality with other hybrid and regular cars. The tax exemption may be used as a tool to suppress the legs of other car importers in the fierce competition for the car import market, all with a government subsidy. After all The State of Israel cannot really support the car companies Globalization in such a way that would justify separate research and development. At most, she can be beta site, that is, the place where the device is tested before it is actually marketed. That is, not only that there is a discount on taxes, but that the breakdowns, the problems, the loss of the product and maybe Even the safety risks - will be on us and on our heads.

3. Intervention in the free market - those who studied economics learned about Adam Smith's theory of the disappearing hand in which he explains that those who move the market are what are the market forces and here the government intervenes: for example an article dated March 27, 2008 on behalf of "Want an electric car? Not at our expense“
And lo and behold, wonder and wonder, recently the government has been gripped by an impressive joy of action. the government chose to intervene in one of the most competitive markets in Israel, the car import market. Moreover, the car import market is also One of the largest markets in Israel with a turnover of billions of shekels per year. Whereas all those dozens of non-competitive markets hoping for the continuation of the reform momentum, which began in March 2003 and was completely stopped by Ehud Olmert, Avraham Hirschzon and Roni Bar-On, did not get even a pinch of that joy of action. The dozens of reforms on which the economic fate of the economy depends in general, and its recovery from the expected and inevitable slowdown in particular, will continue to wait. This, while the public watches with wide eyes how the capitalists, the banks and the powerful committees continue to generate their monopolistic profits on his back.

Here we have government intervention in free trade and another proof that also strengthens capital and government

Argument 3. Environmental - The electric car will work on electricity, the electricity currently produced in the State of Israel is from coal and this means that we have not contributed anything to the environment.
For example: according to an article published in the Yediot Ahronoth newspaper dated April 30, 2008, A study conducted in the USA states that in countries where a significant part of electricity production is based on coal, such as in Israel,The additional greenhouse gas emissions that will be created by the power plants will exceed the pollution they create The bard cars that are driven by an integrated engine Gasoline and electricity.

Another speaker in the article:
Another example: this is actually in the transfer of the infection from one place to another From the car exhaust to the chimneys of the power plants.

2. In another article in Yedaot Ahronoth in the Mammon supplement on April 30, 2008, entitled "They will pollute more than hybrids" "A new study recently published in Environmental Science Technology, from the data collected by the researchers from Pennsylvania, it appears that in countries where there is a lot of use of coal to operate power plants - the pollution from Hebridean cars will be lower than from the electric car. In Israel today there is almost no use of clean energies, and even if these are added to the grid, they should make it possible to reduce the use of polluting energy. The result is that if such a car company does not build a clean private power station for itself, it will cause additional pollution.

It follows that at the moment the electric car will not contribute to the green environment unless they build a clean power plant, which is an unplanned investment with a considerable financial cost.

In summary: I presented you with 3 claims
1. Connection of capital and government – 1. The petition of Ametz, 2. No organized business plan was submitted, no 3. Failure to approach banks to finance the project
2. Lack of economic viability – 1. The transfer of pollution from the car exhaust to the chimneys 2. Addition of pollution investment in the establishment of a green power plant 3. The State of Israel is too small to support the fuel companies as well as turning Israel into a testing ground for a new car which could be dangerous from a safety perspective.
3. environmental - The transfer of the pollution from the car exhaust to the chimneys 2. Additional pollution investment in the construction of a green power plant 3. The State of Israel is too small to support the car companies as well as turning Israel into a testing ground for a new car which could be dangerous from a safety point of view.

I believe that the data I presented to you will help you support my claim: The State of Israel must not finance the electric car project.