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Who Killed the Electric Car?
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| Part No: | B000I5Y8FU |
| Manufacturer: | Sony Pictures |
| MFG Part: | COLD15286D |
| Customer Rating: | 4.5 / 5.0 |
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In 1996 electric cars began to appear on raods all over california. They were quiet fast produced no exhaust & ran without gasoline. 10 years later these futuristic cars were almot entirely gone. What happened? why should we be haunted by the ghost of the electric car? Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 03/25/2008 Run time: 91 minutes Rating: Pg
It begins with a solemn funeral…for a car. By the end of Chris Paine's lively and informative documentary, the idea doesn't seem quite so strange. As narrator Martin Sheen notes, "They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust and ran without gasoline." Paine proceeds to show how this unique vehicle came into being and why General Motors ended up reclaiming its once-prized creation less than a decade later. He begins 100 years ago with the original electric car. By the 1920s, the internal-combustion engine had rendered it obsolete. By the 1980s, however, car companies started exploring alternative energy sources, like solar power. This, in turn, led to the late, great battery-powered EV1. Throughout, Paine deftly translates hard science and complex politics, such as California's Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate, into lay person's terms (director Alex Gibney, Oscar-nominated for
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, served as consulting producer). And everyone gets the chance to have their say: engineers, politicians, protesters, and petroleum spokespeople--even celebrity drivers, like Peter Horton, Alexandra Paul, and a wild man beard-sporting Mel Gibson. But the most persuasive participant is former Saturn employee Chelsea Sexton. Promoting the benefits of the EV1 was more than a job to her, and she continues to lobby for more environmentally friendly options. Sexton provides the small ray of hope Paine's film so desperately needs.
Who Killed the Electric Car? is, otherwise, a tremendously sobering experience. --
Kathleen C. Fennessy Stills from Who Killed the Electric Car? (click for larger image)
Writer/Director Chris Paine Blogs About Who Killed the Electric Car
When Who Killed the Electric Car premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (on the same weekend as An Inconvenient Truth), we wondered whether movie goers were ready for a new kind of 'action film'. Fortunately people jumped onboard and this seems even more true today.
We put this DVD together after the release of the film to include a dozen short scenes we couldn't quite fit into our story. My favorite is one with Stan and Iris Ovshinsky who developed the revolutionary battery technology that powered GM's electric car (and today's Prius). These two brilliant octogenarians took our small camera crew on a Willy Wonka style tour of their inventions including the world's largest thin film solar cell factory. As we stood under a football field size machine in Troy Michigan, I blustered "Is solar power back?" Stan exclaimed " What?! Solar never went away... What was back was backward thinking!" And as his machine cranked out miles of solar cells above us, we knew he was right.
I'm especially glad that the optimistic last scene of Who Killed the Electric Car has proven that we weren't just wishful thinkers when we finished our edit. The clips feature the first glimpse of the ultra fast Tesla electric sports prototype as well the Zenn neighborhood electric vehicle. Both cars are starting to roll off production lines today. And while the State of California (and some car companies) are still gambling on hydrogen fuel cells, plug-in cars are proving to be more environmentally efficient and popular. Early adopters deserve a lot of the credit. Oil companies and the internal combustion engine monopoly may have "killed" thousands of electric cars (EVs) in the 1990s, but EVs are coming back. (Stay tuned for next film...)
I hope you'll find our documentary takes you on a wild ride out of the 20th century and into the 21st. --Chris Paine, Writer/Director
| Yet another 'Blood for Oil' conspiracy theorist movie. | 2008-12-30 | 1 / 5 |
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It's amazing how Anti-American this country has begun. Instead of accepting things for what they are people need to come up with a conspiracy theory why things are a certain way and blame the Bush Administration, government, or the Illuminati.
The majority of the people who watch this are probably the same people who think we went to war in Iraq just for oil, the same people who think we never landed on the moon, the same people who think UFOs roam the planet at land on isolated farms.... People, seriously get a life.
Car manufacturers don't care about money, they care about the environment. They implemented the electric car but it didn't work. Manufacturers like GM care about the air you breath, don't want you to pay to much for repairs or parts, and want you to pay lower gas prices.
AVOID this movie and other conspiracy theories! |
| Who Killed the Electric Car Video | 2008-12-10 | 5 / 5 |
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Excellent. Every American should watch this at least 3 times.
Ken Morton |
| Thought-provoking, must-watch documentary for citizens of the Earth. | 2008-12-08 | 4 / 5 |
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I watched this documentary as the Big Three were grovelling for government bailout in the wake of the economic downturn this year (2008) and find the sheer greed and short-sightedness of the American auto industry to be disgusting and deplorable. As another reviewer mentioned, GM completely squandered a golden opportunity to be the forerunner in the field of zero-emission vehicles. Instead, they decided to succumb to the easy, profitable (in the short term) way out by quashing the electric car and forcing SUVs and gigantor trucks down the American consumers' throats.
This documentary follows the almost-guaranteed-success of the electric car in California before GM took some huuuge missteps. The film includes many perspectives, such as the people who got to lease the electric cars, the California Clean Air Group and representatives of the Auto industry, etc. It is truly disturbing that many politicians and businessmen can lie through their teeth so seamlessly that they almost look like they believe in what they were lying about.
It's unfortunate that this documentary reminded us that big business will only take actions that benefit big business, even if it's only for the short-term, and that the consumers' real desires and needs are secondary to that. It is also somewhat scary to think that maybe the government and the politicians who are supposed to be representing the people and fighting for the rights of the people, might be colluding with big business.
It is a very thought-provoking film and is a bit of a conspiracy theory. It is very educational and it made me even more cynical about big business and government. However, a number of people who were interviewed towards the end of the film raised hopes in me that the future may not be that bleak. A must-see for tree-huggers and non-tree-huggers alike! |
| Did GM squander its first mover advantage? | 2008-12-06 | 5 / 5 |
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General Motors began leasing EV1 electric cars in California and Arizona in 1996. It terminated the program in 2003 and refused to allow lessees to buy the cars at the end of the lease term. Instead, GM took the cars back and crushed them. The plot thickens as GM sells its stake in the EV1's battery supplier to an oil company.
The film examines several suspects:
Car companies
Oil Companies
California Air Resource Board
Consumers
Federal government
Hydrogen fuel cell technology
Battery technology
An important context was the State of California's mandate to automakers, requiring 2% of new vehicles sold in the state to meet zero emission standards by 1998, and 10% by 2003. After being sued by the auto industry and the Bush administration, the mandate was dropped.
The full title is: "Who Killed the Electric Car? A Lack of Consumer Demand or Conspiracy?" This is a rhetorical question. The filmmaker clearly dismisses GM's assertion that there simply wasn't sufficient demand for the product. This is confirmed by the headline on the back of the DVD case: "The Auto Industry's Biggest Conspiracy... Revealed."
Two years after this film was released, GM announced the Chevy Volt for the 2011 model year -- 14 years after the EV1 was launched. Did it really take 14 years for the technology to become practical for the mass market? Or did GM squander the opportunity to capitalize on the EV1's first mover advantage, paving the way for Toyota Prius to fill the void?
Conspiracy theory aside, this is a well-documented, thought-provoking film.
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| A True Eye Opener For Me | 2008-12-01 | 5 / 5 |
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| This documentary was a true eye opener for me. It puts the mainstream media to shame when they wanted people to believe the electric cars are coming out in the future and the victim mentality they want their viewers to have and that's the attitude of "There's nothing you can do about it!" Electric cars are out there and the other company this documentary puts to shame is GM as well as the other top notch automakers in the game. They had a car that people wanted and they took it off the market and their reasons for doing so was unacceptable! An electric car would have saved consumers from going to the gas station multiple times weekly, getting our oil changed every 3 months or 3,000 miles as the experts would say and replacing every other part related to the internal combustion engine. Also, it would have reduced the harmful impact on the environment! But they thought that they would lose money on electric cars in the next 6 months! If they jumped on the electric car bandwagon, their profits would have skyrocketed in the next 6 months and would have been at an all time high today, even in this so-called bad economy. Now look at the shape the automakers are in, crying for a $34 billion bailout for the so-called legitimate excuse of they want to meet the retirement needs of their employees. If you're reading this review don't you believe that baloney! Oil was the thing back in the day but it's time for the CEO's to quit living in their past glory! They get on the TV and advertise their new model cars and they say it has 24 mpg in the city and 25 on the highway. Bad fuel economy. I see if they made cars that got 150 to 300 mpg on the highway, then they can charge for what they do for their cars. I'm sorry there's nothing to brag about except for the electric car! An electric car is out there. You'll have to take matters into your own hands to get one and not count on the automakers or any government agencies to get the job done for you! |
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