PARIS--Joe Paluska has departed his CCO role at Better Place, as the electric car player attempts to revive its fortunes by restructuring operations.

Paluska joined the ambitious Silicon Valley startup in in 2008, after helping launch the company one year earlier while working as Hill + Knowlton's global technology director.

Better Place raised more than $850m from investors supporting technology that would allow electric car drivers to swap batteries rather than wait for a recharge. However, after losing more than $500m, the company parted ways with founder Shai Agassi last year and has cut more than 40 percent of its staff in order to focus on core markets Denmark and Israel.

Paluska is a casualty of the restructuring effort, after serving as global CCO for the past five years.

"Shai Agassi and the entire Better Place team were fantastic comrades in arms, and I wish them much success in their quest for oil independence," Paluska told the Holmes Report. "I'm looking forward to finding my next adventure as rewarding as my time with Better Place."

 Better Place's public relations is now being led by Denmark comms head Susanne Tolstrup. 

Despite outlining an innovative and compelling idea, Better Place's problems are being viewed as a failure of execution, amid continued consumer scepticism towards electric cars. In an interview with the Holmes Report last year, Paluska discussed some of the public relations issues that had bedevilled Better Place's attempts to communicate its progress.

Prior to joining H+K in 2002, Paluska was a VP at Applied Communications.