Oh, that guy. I met the Better Place CEO once. Good looking, great talker, knew many national leaders, totally unworkable business plan. Along the lines of "take over the world, with 10x growth per year." In a business where you actually have to build stations and cars, not just distribute software, and the margins are low. I wouldn't go all the way to "con man", but it was close. More like someone who bought into their own hype.

Automated battery swapping takes tight standardization. It's in use for some industrial robotic AGVs.[1][2][3] Mechanically, it works, but all the vehicles have to be very similar. A taxi fleet, maybe.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvqbw0UT5pM [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKg8Zxmmpv4 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJwtwdeAXhM