Highways throughout the San Francisco Bay Area will be dotted with a $1 billion network of electric car recharging stations by 2012.

Palo Alto-based Better Place announced the plan Thursday along with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. The deal sets out to install charging stations in homes, businesses, parking lots and government buildings by 2012.

"We're going to get serious about advancing our local climate action plans, about getting into the business of alternative transportation," Newsom said during a news conference at City Hall. "I don't believe halfway is good enough. I'm a guy driving a hybrid (vehicle) and I don't feel too good about that. For us to get to the next level, we need unprecedented regional collaboration."

The company said it will also build mechanized battery swapping centers where robots will remove and replace the batteries in cars that are compatible with the system. These stations will allow electric car drivers to travel longer distances without recharging.

As part of the announcement, Better Places also unveiled a prototype electric Nissan Rogue SUV, the second such vehicle developed under its partnership with automakers.

The company models itself on mobile phone network providers, comparing its charging stations and battery swapping stations to cell phone towers those companies maintain.

Until now, the knock on most electric vehicles is that they were prohibitively expensive because the batteries cost $10,000 or more.

Joe Paluska, the company's head of policy and communications, said the new prototype vehicles solve that problem since the company owns the rechargeable batteries and would charge drivers a subscription fee to use its facilities.

Better Place has built similar networks in Israel, Denmark and Australia, but the Bay Area infrastructure will be the first of its kind in the United States.

The stations will allow drivers of electric vehicles to make long-distance trips without worrying about finding a place to charge or change a battery.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday supported the deal, which the company hopes to someday take statewide.

"This type of public-private partnership is exactly what I envisioned when we created the first-ever low carbon fuel standard and when the state enacted the zero emissions vehicle program," Schwarzenegger said in statement. "This partnership is proof that by working together, we can achieve our goals of creating a healthier planet while boosting our economy at the same time."