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Ontarians could soon be paying a monthly bill to power their cars with clean electricity instead of paying at the pumps to fill up on gasoline, the government revealed in an announcement yesterday.

Premier Dalton McGuinty announced the province is partnering with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Better Place LLC to create a province-wide grid that could conveniently power electric cars. Drivers will pay to charge up their car batteries in the same way they pay for their mobile phone bills – through a combination subscription-based system, and pay-per-use model.

"Commuters will be able to buy miles for their car like they buy music for their iPods or minutes for their cell phones," McGuinty said at a press conference in Toronto. "That's an idea with the power to re-shape our province."

Much like how your cell phone contract helps to subsidize the expensive handset you purchase with your plan, your electric car could also be subsidized with your subscription to using the electric infrastructure.

Founded in 2007, Better Place describes themselves as a mobility company that sells access to their network. It just so happens that this network will be used to refuel your car – or more accurately, recharge. Company founder and CEO Shai Agassi espouses the environmental benefits of getting cars off petroleum, and on to electricity produced via renewable resources that are free of carbon emissions.

Agassi is a former executive from enterprise software company SAP AG. He brought over some other former SAP employees to work with him at Better Place.

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