Who Killed The Electric Car?

Warning: This film will raise your blood pressure and after watching it, it is quite likely that in the unlikely event you ever meet someone who says "Hi, I work for General Motors", you may well punch his lights out.

This is a documentary, narrated by the reassuringly soothing voice of Martin Sheen, about the birth and untimely death of the Californian Electric Car, the EV-1. This was a General Motors vehicle, designed to meet the state's zero emission vehicle targets. Owners (well, renters actually), included Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks and Alexandra Paul (the only Baywatch star who wasn't "silicon enhanced" and is a huge environmental activist).

The EV-1 was an electric car with a range of about 60 miles between charges. It is important to remember this, as there will be a test later. With a range of 60 miles, the car was perfect for most commuters living in a city.

General Motors marketing strategy was brilliant. First they produced the car by hand, so they were expensive. OK, so they were experimental, so that's maybe forgivable.

Secondly they only leased the cars, you couldn't buy one.

Thirdly they made the leasing process cumbersome and difficult.
: "The questions they were asking, I mean....Have you ever had a proctoscope inserted up your.....well, no... I mean, it was specific."

Fourthly, they advertised the product without ever showing the product. The car was always slightly off screen, or blurred, or in the far distance.

Fifthly, when someone wanted to lease one, the sales person had to go through all the drawbacks of the car.
: "Not once did you see the car in an advert with a half naked woman draped across it, or an attractive person sitting in it. And then we had to tell people the bad things about the car before leasing it. This is not the way to sell a car!"

Eventually GM sued California's Air Resources Board to repeal the law, were joined in the fight by the federal government (who then introduced tax breaks that "favoured" gas guzzling SUVs), and got the law revoked. At the meeting, GM, Ford, and Chrysler representatives were given almost unlimited air time to talk. EV-1 ownerships representatives, environmentalists and other "pro-electric" supporters were given about 3 minutes each.

: "Well some are being donated to university campuses, others will end up in museums and technology testing centres and some are in private hands. I mean, we're not going to just crush these cars and dump them in landfill."

In fact, only one EV-1 is known to still exist. It is in a museum, not even on display, but stuck in their basement. And it doesn't even run, because GM disabled it.

I really like this documentary. Whereas Fahrenheit 9/11 showed us that George W. Bush is an idiot, this films shows that's he's also a corporate puppet. After the electric vehicle "failed due to lack of demand", even though thousands on Californians were on waiting lists for them when the car was withdrawn, GM announced that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were the way of the future and would be available in 10-15 years.

: "Yeah, we said that 10-15 years ago"

I particularly liked his part about the "Five Miracles Needed for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars To Work"

1. Fuel cell cars cost about $1,000,000. That price has to drop.
2. o material known to man can hold enough hydrogen to give the car the range between filling stations that consumers require.
3. Hydrogen is expensive. It costs at least 3 times as much (in monetary terms) for the same distance travelled compared with plugging into the mains. The hydrogen also costs (in energy terms) three times the amount of energy that direct electricity costs.
4. There's no infrastructure. Everyone in the US has electricity, there are about 150,000 petrol stations. But very few hydrogen and you'd need at least 20,000 stations before consumers would bother switching to hydrogen.
5. You'd better pray that your competitors (petrol, hybrid, electric) don't improve the efficiency of their vehicles before you can get to market, because if they do, you're stuffed.

This doesn't even include my two favourites:

1. Hydrogen Is Explosive! I've underlined that because I think it's important. Petrol burns. Contrary to what you've seen in movies, petrol does not explode. Fuel-air mixtures of petrol can explode but they require an enclosed environment to build up the gas beforehand.
2. You think CFCs were bad for the ozone layer? You've obviously never seen hydrogen at work.

Score: N/A It's a documentary and not really scorable on the Saxon Film Scale (SFS). It is very enlightening and well worth a watch. It will get you fuming mad though, particularly at GM, Bush, CARB and Ronald Regan (whose first act in the White House was to remove the solar panels on the roof that Jimmy Carter had installed).

OQ: From a man speaking at the "funeral" for the EV-1: "It is true what General Motors say. The EV-1 is not for everyone, as it can only meet the needs of about 90% of consumers."

OOQ: We've got General Motors saying they know what's best for Americans and acting like Uncle Sam. We don't need another Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam is Uncle Sam, and Uncle Sam is acting like it's General Motors!

OOOQ: Text:

GM bought Hummer from AM Motors: March 2004
GM cancelled EV-1 project and the scrapped cars: April 2004