Here’s hoping that after burning through $850 million, that Better Place is in a better place. R.I.P., via Venture Beat:

Better Place, the electric car company that hoped to change the world with its ambitious battery-swapping stations, said today it is shutting down. The closure brings to an end arguably the most audacious “clean-tech” company ever attempted.

The news was reported this morning by AP.

Entrepreneur Shai Agassi launched the company six years ago, with the goal of creating a system of stations where electric cars could automatically drop off used batteries and switch in new ones before resuming their journey.

The bet was risky because it required large geographies — indeed, entire nations — to adopt the technology in order for it to scale successfully. The company chose small countries like Israel and Denmark to test its model, but the company’s upfront costs kept mounting, and debuts kept getting delayed. Also, a number of competing electric car efforts, including by new company Tesla, but also by larger car companies, kept the industry from adopting any one standard.

The rest here.