I went to see the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car” the other night. It was a de facto private showing, since I was the only person in the theater, proving once again that I’m weird. Yes, I like to watch lectures on C-SPAN and documentaries on PBS, so going to a movie about the demise of the electric car is not unusual for me.
It was pretty interesting; I vaguely remember the electric car of the 90’s. I remember the buzz being that they were impractical because the battery life was too short. Well, according to the producers of the movie, it was much more sinister than that. Essentially, the movie claims that automakers (aided and abetted by the oil industry and the Bush administration) killed the electric car.
They pointed out that electric cars don’t need as much maintenance as their internal-combustion-engine counterparts. Oil filters, air filters, catalytic converters, mufflers, etc., are all eliminated in an electric car. If electric cars became successful, there’s a huge part of the automotive industry that would see big profit losses. And, of course, since they don’t use gas, the oil industry would also see huge profit losses.
The movie-makers conceded that battery-life was a hindrance, but added that that obstacle was easily surmountable as battery technology has improved in leaps and bounds over the past 10 to 15 years. With modern lithium-ion batteries, an electric car can go 100+ miles per charge. Considering the average person only drives around 30 miles per day, this is more than enough for a primary vehicle one would use to commute to work or get groceries. For long trips, one could use a secondary vehicle with a standard gas engine or a hybrid. You can even ask an electrician like MZ Electric or visit sites like xpertelectricllc.com/electrical/ev-charger-installation/ to get an EV charger at home.
The oil companies lobbied against the electric car, and (according to the movie) big-oil lackeys in the Bush administration have convinced the President to pursue unrealistic hydrogen power for motor vehicles which will take years to research, test, and make practical and marketable rather than electric cars, which could be produced immediately with existing technology.
General Motors, which took the brunt of the criticism in the movie, has issued a press release defending themselves. They claim that the cars simply didn’t have enough consumer demand to make it profitable for the auto giant to continue the program. They point out that “only 800 vehicles were leased during a four-year period.”
Critics counter that GM could have done more to make the program successful. They point out that advertisements for the cars were unlike any other auto ad campaign — and if the commercial they showed during the movie is any indication, I’d have to agree. It had an ominous, almost apocalyptic feel to it, with pictures of people’s shadows on the ground, but no people, and a female voice-over that sounded like the opening of the first Lord of the Rings movie. A far cry from normal car commercials that feature hip-looking twenty-somethings, speeding cars, and popular music.
And although GM claims that “a waiting list of 5,000 only generated 50 people willing to follow through to a lease,” critics point to a GM executive in charge of that effort who said on camera (this is not an exact quote, but close), “after we explained all the limitations of the vehicle, only 50 people were willing to lease it.” Some salesman. Ever gone to car dealership and had the sales staff explain all the limitations of a vehicle to you? Also, even though this wasn’t mentioned in the movie, I imagine the fact that you could only lease and not buy the car also had some impact. For example, I’d never lease a car; I want to pay it off as quickly as possible and then drive it until it dies.
I thought the documentary was well done for the most part, although there were several creepy parts that made you feel like these activists love their cars as much or more than other humans. When they showed the EV1s (GM’s electric car model, pictured above) being destroyed, it was like the filmakers were trying to make it look like a WWII documentary of suffering and extermination in concentration camps. When there were many activists holding vigil outside one of the GM plants trying to stop GM from removing/destroying the last hundred or so EV1s, I thought to myself, couldn’t this effort be put to better use protesting the genocide taking place in Darfur or something? Suffice it to say, the movie was a bit over-the-top at points.
Nevertheless, I walked away pretty much convinced that U.S. would be well-served by pursuing electric cars as a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil. And, I was equally convinced that auto makers have no incentive to make such cars, even if there is demand for them, because they can make a lot more money by keeping electric cars out of the marketplace. The only way it will ever happen is if the government demands zero-emission vehicles be built. And that opens a whole new can of worms.
