Israel's new electric car initiative was presented to a US congressional committee this week in hopes of garnering investment in a project that could ease financial troubles caused by rising oil prices.

Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, who has teamed with Renaul/Nissan to introduce electric cars to Israel on a massive scale in the coming years, told the congressional Committee on Energy Independence that investing in the Israeli initiative will be good for America in several ways.

First, most of the infrastructure for the project, which will require battery swap stations being built throughout Israel, will be built in the United States, creating jobs for Americans.

More importantly, if the project proves successful in Israel, it will provide a model for more wide scale electric car use in the US.

Agassi noted that operating an electric car costs about six cents a mile, whereas a gasoline-powered car costs 16 cents a mile to operate.