Israel’s government recently endorsed the ambitious plan of a private entrepreneur to install the world’s first electric car network here by 2011, with half a million recharging stations to crisscross the tiny nation.
Supporters hailed the undertaking as a bold step in the battle against global warming and energy dependency, but skeptics warned that much could still go wrong along the way.

In a signing ceremony with the Renault-Nissan Alliance under the slogan “Transportation without fuel, making peace between transportation and the environment” Israel’s leaders pledged to provide tax incentives to customers to make Israel’s cars fuel-free.

The project is a joint venture between Renault-Nissan, which will provide the electric vehicles, and the Silicon Valley-based startup Project Better Place, which will operate the recharging grid.

The replacement and charging of the lithium-ion batteries is supposed to work like that of a cell phone battery.

The initiative is the brainchild of Shai Agassi, a 39-year-old Israeli-American entrepreneur and high-tech star, who raised $200 million to get the project off the ground.