Electric Car Filling Stations?

Is this the birth of 'petrol' stations for electric cars? The first public trial of a system that 'refills’ electric cars in minutes was first  launched  in Better Place a Californian company which has tested its automated battery-swap stations in Tokyo. As we know one of the biggest challenges to the large-scale implementation of electric cars is the problem of infrastructure for recharging. You're not going to buy a car you can only charge at home or at a very select number of charging points within a select number of cities. Better Place, based in California has come up with a model that involves building networks of charging points and battery-switch stations. The idea is that at one of these electric stations there will be an automated mechanism that will swap your empty battery with a fully charged one. This allows your electric car to be refilled and ready to go in around the same amount of time it takes to fill a normal car with fuel.