Who Killed the Electric Car?
2006: Chris Paine
PG – 92 minutes
Vault Rating: 9
About a year ago, Video Vault swore off of documentary films, there were so many of them and most of them were really good. This was before a shift in the information stream that includes radio, television, Internet and other media. This shift that I see is that, because digital film-making has brought the fire down from Valhalla, you or I can now make a film about anything we want.
This leads to stories and information getting out into a mainstream that has been tightly controlled. Film is the new weapon of choice in the information wars and the political left has been landing haymakers in theaters ever since Michael Moore’s groundbreaking “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
Recently, Vault has been sinking a lot of time into three related documentaries that are essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand the world today. These documentaries are what I like to call “mind-bombs” because they completely subvert corporate and government propaganda with truth. The truth is a scary thing to companies like General Motors and Exxon/Mobil. And it is dangerous to confront our governing bodies with true things. Vault loves nothing better than sticking a finger in the eye of bad government and vile corporations.
The trinity of films we’ve been discussing are the following: “An Inconvenient Truth,” today’s feature, “Who Killed the Electric Car?” and our next feature, “Why We Fight,” which Vault rates as a 10. All are available through Adventure / Silver Screen. They need to be seen in rapid succession, and they produce a different kind of shock and awe.
Today’s feature is one of the most important films of 2006. It is the mind-boggling story about how General Motors in 1996 designed and produced a terrific zero emission car and then intentionally drove the entire project over a cliff.
GM’s EV1 was a kind of a tricked-out Taurus-looking thing. Cooler and sleeker, though, and without some of the Taurus’ features: like a gas tank. It went about 80-100 miles on a charge (The average American drives 29 miles per day, we’re told.) with zippy performance and you plugged it in in your garage, which, in my opinion, would be easier than driving to the gas station given today’s prices.
Through interviews with government officials, former GM employees and concerned EV1 drivers like Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson, director Chris Paine is the sleuth trying to solve the case of “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
Hundreds of EV1s were leased to California drivers in the 1990s as the result of tougher emissions standards there. But when the leases expired, GM would not allow the car owners to renew their leases. None of the cars remain on the road today.
Why? The various culprits are examined.
The California Air Resources Board in 1990 passed a law requiring the production of some exhaust-free vehicles. The auto industry both complied with and fought the law. By the time EV1 owners’ leases had expired, though, big industry got pod-people like Dr. Alan C. Lloyd placed in charge of that board. Lloyd infuriatingly shows just how damaging low-level corporate flunkies can be.
Big Oil is another primary culprit. With oil prices soaring, it is clear how profitable it is to just keep polluting the earth. Astonishingly, when GM killed the EV1 and bought instead into the Hummer, the patent on the batteries that made the cars work so well was sold to Chevron/Texaco. This would be the same Chevron which had Condoleezza Rice as a board member. It would seem to me that the secretary of state could influence the war on terror by giving those battery patents back to GM. Surely, the way to fight terrorism is to make oil worthless, right?
GM gets a roundhouse spanking in this film too. The company’s own engineers and support staff were legitimately excited about the project. Many who worked on the project tell how they quickly got the feeling that GM wasn’t as thrilled with their project as they were.
GM produced commercials like no other car commercials I’ve ever seen. The ads featured in the movie had scary music and shadowy, alien-looking shapes (no actual people) and never prominently featured the EV1 except in blurry, distorted images, or in the distance. None of the advertising featured a hot chick zipping down a highway. As an ad writer myself, I’ve never seen advertising so completely and intentionally designed to FAIL.
Vault was completely surprised in the film to find out what a big hoax the federal government is pushing by funding hydrogen fuel cell research. Director Chris Paine clearly shows how fuel cells will almost never work, that the fuel-celled Hummer that Gov. Schwarzenegger drives around to look environmentally friendly actually cost a million dollars to produce and could almost never be made on a production scale. A fuel-cell-driven Hummer is the ugliest of jokes to begin with.
When the president goes on television and touts fuel cells as an alternative to America’s oil independence, it is the biggest oil company bait and switch ever. The film shows this to be a distraction from the easy technology we already have that makes the electric car a cost-effective no-brainer. The federal tax code, however, currently allows you a $100,000 tax credit for the purchase of a Hummer while simultaneously phasing out its puny incentives for hybrid cars.
As a matter of fact, next time I see a Hummer being driven down the road, I’m going to catch up to that guy and ask him if he took advantage of the tax credit to buy the gas hog. If he says “yes,” then I’m going to ask him to refund my portion of the tax money he got to pay for it. That’s right, friends. Your and my tax dollars are going toward helping well-to-do people finance the cost of their Hummers. Sick isn’t it?
Imagine if GM had gone with the EV1 10 years ago. How profitable would that company be today? Would we be fighting a war in Iraq? It serves GM and Ford right that their profits are declining, while companies like Honda and Toyota, who make more efficient vehicles, are doing quite nicely, thank you.
Meanwhile, above the fray, Exxon/Mobil is raking in enough money to buy the whole damn world and laughing all the way to the bank.
“Who Killed the Electric Car?” is a neat movie, powerful and informative. It shows how simple a problem America’s oil addiction really is and how big an obstruction the oil industry is to the cure. And it kind of makes me feel like what I drive says an awful lot about me. Check this movie out. You simply won’t believe the story that unfolds before your eyes, it is one of Vault’s top ten of the year.
Like we said above, if you like “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Vault strongly recommends the film, “Why We Fight,” also out on new release racks now. “Why We Fight” is a polemic examining America’s military conflicts dating back to the beginning of the cold war. Oddly, I find “Who Killed the Electric Car?” and “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Why We Fight” are indirectly talking about the same problem: Greed. “Why We Fight” will get the full Video Vault treatment here in a few days’ time. And until we start taking Dwight D. Eisenhower’s advice about the military-industrial complex … Enjoy!
For more information on the EV1 and the newest in electric and hybrid vehicles, try these links:
Electrifying Times
Plug In America