If you think the environment is pretty cool, don’t watch this movie. If you think the government always looks out for your best interests, don’t watch this movie. If you think the oil industry doesn’t control policy, don’t watch this movie. If you think the auto industry deserves our empathy, don’t watch this movie. If you think technology is pretty cool, don’t watch this movie.
But if you think, then you probably need to watch this movie.
Did you know that the average number of miles each American drives in a given day is 29? Do you know why the Japanese make the best hybrid car even though we developed the technology and have had the technology for far longer? Did you know that hydrogen-powered cars use four times as much energy as electric cars and their introduction to the market is perpetually 15 years from any given date? Do you know why cars are actually less efficient now than they were 20 years ago?
Think about it.
I dare you to watch “Who Killed the Electric Car?” without getting indignant, infuriated and fired up. This tremendously compelling 2006 documentary by director Chris Paine takes a murder-mystery approach to questions about why electric cars that once dotted California highways just disappeared and why a technology that has existed for 100 years has been buried? Voiced by Martin Sheen and featuring celebrities such as Mel Gibson, Ed Begley Jr. and Alexandra Paul, this flick takes a thorough, unflinching look at all of the “suspects” and lets you decide. At the risk of stating the obvious, let me just say that your tears for Detroit will dry up rather quickly.
Starting with a faux funeral for GM’s EV1, we’re led into a discussion about the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, a 1990 California law that forced auto-makers to develop zero-emission vehicles within a 10-year timeframe. GM paid the ZEV mandate lip service by putting their 20-something, inexperienced, newbie engineers on the electric car project in a quest to fail. In that respect, the success they enjoyed was as unexpected as it was unwanted. By 1996, technology such as the Ev1, SunRacer and Impact was appearing all over Cali roads -- yet, just a decade later, they were all gone.
That commercial there above was never aired. Despite its rapid popularity, the EV1 from GM was never marketed. The tagline “The electric is here” never truly reached American ears. Smog, the “black cloud of death,” took its place; the ozone hole expanded as the electric car disappeared. For whatever reason, the auto companies began marketing against themselves, performing acts of self-sabotage once they realized two things: one, that the American public actually wanted electric cars, which would have fewer dealer repairs and require less money to maintain, obviously leading to fewer profits; and second, that introducing a clean, efficient car to their fleets would shed light on the fact that the rest of their offerings were, therefore, dirty and inefficient.
Think about it.
The interviewees point out, and rightly so, that the auto industry will never do anything to help the consumer or environment without having laws in place forcing them to. In the words of consumer advocate Ralph Nader, car companies only excel at “looking backwards into the future.” It’s that “vision” that led the car companies to first sue the Air Resources Board, then enlist an auto- and oil-friendly government to project “progress” through the empty façade of hydrogen power and fuel cells.
President Jimmy Carter’s visionary stance on energy and the environment was quickly dismantled by the modern-day Mr. Magoo, Ronald Reagan, whose first renovation to the White House was to remove solar paneling and declare “war on the sun.” In the words of one of his cabinet members, Reagan effectively “kept the junkie hooked up,” by maintaining the U.S. pipeline to and dependence on foreign oil flowing. You follow that up with the Bushes and their merry band of criminal petro-politicians, and the result is not just forced technological stagnation, but a slow shift back to the Dark Ages of transportation history. Not to mention helping to usher in the age of terrorism.
When Mel Gibson is asked, “Who controls the future?”, he pauses before responding, “Whoever has the biggest club -- to bash with and belong to.” It’s why big oil bought up all the trolleys years ago, and it’s the same reason big oil bought up battery technology and effectively censured it and made it disappear.
One reporter in the documentary remarked that when Americans hear terms like “living cleaner,” what they immediately think is, “You’re going to make me live like a European,” in a small car, in a cold house. Our society’s herd mentality seems more than happy to follow along blindly, purchasing whatever is put in front of us and yielding to big business’s whims. “If you feed people enough,” said one former EV1 owner in the film, “they believe that’s the diet.” Monopoly ain’t just a game by Parker Brothers, folks. Open your eyes.
Think about it.
By the end, all the “suspects” in "Who Killed the Electric Car?" were found to be complicit, evoking the image of “death by a million cuts.” At one point, one of the original EV1 engineers gains access to an EV1 in an underground museum, leading the curator to remark how they are so lucky to have a car that represents such a big part of automotive history—to which the engineer sadly replies, “The thing is it shouldn’t be a part of automotive history.”
Yet this flick is partially about the strength of activist consumers. EV1 lovers, vigilant environmentalists and socially aware common folk all helped to shed the light on GM destroying the EV1 for no reason in the middle of the night and in the middle of the desert, crushing brand-new, perfectly working cars for the sake of keeping the public blinded to the reality of electric-car technology and keep it mainlining foreign oil.
But the push for green, clean, plug-in hybrid technology persists, thanks to recent, forward-looking, open-minded governmental changes and the rise of grassroots movements like Plug In America, along with the involvement of brave folks like former CIA director James Woolsey. The hope and optimism behind these efforts are the reason why Paine is reportedly working on a sequel, “Who Saved the Electric Car?” or “Revenge of the Electric Car.”
In this David vs. Goliath battle, despite the conspiratorial, immoral and illegal efforts of a rich and conscience-less Goliath, David is finally throwing enough rocks to scare the christ out of him. And as charming invention-inspired couple Stanford and Iris (not Stanley and Iris Ovshinsky) tell us in this memorable film, they would much rather educate than agitate -- but sometimes you can’t have one without the other.
Think about it.
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