Five years ago, while at a YGL gathering in Zermatt, Switzerland Shai Agassi was bothered by climate change, pollution and the impact cars have on the environment. Suddenly, he had an epiphany about the company he wanted to launch.

His pollution solution: Create an electric car network. Instead of becoming a seller of electric cars, Shai decided he should create a network to become the AT&T of transportation.

His company, Better Place Plc, aims to introduce electric car networks into the mainstream consumer markets at emphasis affordable prices and great convenience. The project recently got a great boost with US$350 million of investment from HSBC, Morgan Stanley and others.

Electric cars would be especially valuable in areas of high density and short distance driving, such as Hong Kong. His main target in Hong Kong is the taxi fleet.

More than half of Hong Kong’s kilometers are driven by taxis, so eliminating the pollution from these would eliminate a great deal of ground level pollution. The first launch of his system will take place in Israel and Denmark within the next year.

Agassi’s real target, however, is China. With the fastest growing fleet of cars (13.5 million and rising fast), China will play an important role in the development of this technology. If China decides to go electric, the world will go electric, Agassi says. But is anything pointing in that direction?

China already incentivizes electric vehicles with a US$9,000 tax break and a new city only for electric cars is planned. All the right policies are driven top-down from the government as well as bottom-up from the car industry, Agassi says.