A Better Place sedan made by Renault-Nissan. Photo: Better Place (flickr)

Imagine there was a new way to charge an electric car that was as quick as filling up a tank of gas. What if you had the option of plugging your car into a vast network of charging stations or — if you needed to drive longer distances — were able to simply swap out your run-down battery with a fully charged one in locations as numerous as today's gas stations?

The dawn of this new paradigm is now. Better Place, as founder Shai Agassi explains, plans to revolutionize the way we look at the electric car by “putting a massive extension cord across the entire country.”

Better Place is teaming with Renault-Nissan to offer the option to buy or lease a vehicle. Agassi's company would streamline the way we fuel these vehicles by having the driver purchase miles on their car's battery much like cell phone users pay for minutes. As Thomas Friedman of the New York Times explains, “G.M. sells cars. Better Place is selling mobility miles.”

Enthusiastically backed by President Shimon Peres, Better Place signed its first deal with Israel, and hopes to be up and running there in 2011. Better Place plans to start setting up shop soon in the Bay Area and Hawaii, with the goal to be fully operational by 2012.

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm met with Agassi in November in hopes of attracting the new start-up and the resulting manufacturing jobs to her much-beleaguered state. November's unemployment rate was 9.6 percent in the Great Lake State, which the New York Times called "ground zero in the national economic downturn."

On January 7, A123 Systems — a battery manufacturer and partner of Better Place — announced plans to build the first of two proposed battery factories in southeast Michigan. Combined, the two plants would create more than 14,000 much needed jobs. This alone would be a big economic boost to an area of the country that sorely needs it.

There are two salt deserts in Bolivia: the Salar de Coipasa and the Salar de Uyuni — both of which could be destroyed in the mining of lithium. Photo: Jessie Reeder (flickr)

Does Bolivia have a resource as valuable as Saudi Arabian oil?

The auto industry has historically relied on oil to power cars, but is now turning to new sources of energy. Consequently, raw materials like the lithium in electric car batteries are now in demand.

Ford and GM have invested in the research and production of electric cars, while Toyota has announced plans to build a hybrid electric and start selling an all-electric car by 2012.

So where does Bolivia come into the picture? The introduction of the lithium-ion battery allows cars to go farther on a single charge, making them more convenient and economically viable. But there is a catch: The lithium needed for these batteries is a limited resource, and according to this BBC video report, half of the world’s supply is under Bolivia’s salt flats.

Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, could benefit enormously from mining and processing lithium. But extraction industries have always been controversial. Political tensions over exporting natural gas have ended two presidencies and led to calls for regional autonomy. These tensions have damaged Bolivia's tourism industry, which makes up 6.1 percent of Bolivia's economy.

Mining lithium poses a potential economic Catch-22. Most tourists are drawn by Bolivia’s unspoiled landscape, with the salt flats being a particular point of interest. Mining for lithium could destroy the salt flats, while processing could lead to environmental degradation.

Although electric cars have often been hailed as the future of an environmentally conscious auto industry, lithium has the same Achilles heel as oil: it is a scarce resource. In addition, it is unclear whether the auto industry will even have access to the amount of lithium they would need to launch these ambitious plans. Bolivia’s president Evo Morales is famously cautious about allowing foreigners to mine, and he's considered a fierce environmental protectionist. The decision to mine the salt flats is Bolivia's. Ultimately, the country will have to weigh the benefits of economic development against environmental protection, tourism and foreign influence.