The IDF is looking into the possibility of purchasing electric cars from the Israeli company Better Place as part of an effort to cut fuel expenses for the military. Better Place plans to begin marketing electric-powered cars in Israel sometime in 2011.

Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi founded Better Place in 2007, and within a year Israel became the first country to embrace the Better Place model of building open network infrastructures to enable mass adoption of electric vehicles and deliver transportation as a sustainable service.

The cars will be manufactured by Renault-Nissan, and the prototype was unveiled at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen last month. According to the company, Denmark, Australia, California, Hawaii, and Ontario have also joined the initiative.

‘This could work for the IDF,” a senior officer from the Logistics Corps explained. “There are many bases where officers come in the morning and leave in the evening and during the day their cars just sit there. Instead, they could be hooked up to a Better Place charger.”

The IDF is also looking into additional technologies that would relive the military of its dependence on gasoline, such as biodiesel and animal or plant-based diesel fuel.

Defense officials said the partnership with Better Place was still under initial review by Deputy Defense Minister Director General Bezalel Treiber.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Israel