The Better Place electric car company, which promoted the vision of Israel as the first country on earth with an electric car network, has filed for bankruptcy. The company was in court Sunday to ask to be dissolved.
The company has been posting losses since early 2010. Despite excitement in early 2012 as its first cars hit the roads, sales grew increasingly dismal, and the company transferred only 25 vehicles in November 2012.
In 2012 the board of directors replaced entrepreneur Shai Agassi, the company’s founder, as CEO. Chairman Idan Ofer said at the time that the company expected to begin turning a profit in two to three years.
Its investors decided not to wait that long. On Sunday morning the Israel Corporation, which has a controlling share in Better Place, announced that it would no longer be investing in the electric car company.
The bankruptcy announcement followed a short time later.
Better Place’s workers, creditors, and owners of its electric cars are all waiting to see what will happen to the company’s holdings and to the cars that were already sold.