|
In the mid 1990s and up to 2002, a small group of people were provided the opportunity to participate in a lease-only option to drive EV1 (an all electric vehicle) manufactured by GM. The EV1 was a prototype all-electric car made to meet the needs of the urban dweller. It quickly gained popularity, because not only was it earth friendly but was also easy to drive an did not break down easilty. In fact the people who leased the EV1 loved them. Then suddenly one day, all people leasing EV1 cars were contacted and told that their leases were up an they needed to return the EV1. There was no option to buy or to exend their lease. No one was given any explanation as to why this program was terminated. GM not only stopped the production of these EVs but actually distroyed them systematically by crushing them. The movie who Killed the Electric Car, explains the stake holders who benifittted from this . Why corporate greed distroyed a concept that could have made America energy independent. The demise of whicha has eventually made America more vulnerable by being more dependant on foreign oil. Car companies did every thing in there power to kill this electric vehicle. they sued the State, made ridiculous ads, and created complex leasing mechanisms to deter people from buying this vehicle. GM made the decision not only to Stop production but also went out of their way to ensure that EV1 was history. Who Killed the Electric Car explains how officials bow to intense pressure from lobbying groups. Who killed the Electric Car features many famous actors & celebrities who highlight their experience with the EV1. 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 The film also highlights what roles auto manufacturers, oil companies, the Us government and consumers played in the manufacture, commercialization & the eventual demise of the EV1. Famous Celebrities who drove EV1 and also features in the flim: Who killed the Electric Car - Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks, Alexandra Paul, Peter Horton, Ed Begley, Jr., Ralph Nader, Frank Gaffney, Alan Lloyd, Jim Boyd, Alan Lowenthal, S. David Freeman, and ex-CIA head James Woolsey, Bush's cabinet members who are ex. oil executives and board members, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Andrew Card. Who would have lost if EV1 was continued: oil companies were afraid of losing out on trillions in potential profit from their transportation fuel monopoly over the coming decades, while the auto companies were afraid of losses over the next six months of EV production.
A few were disabled and given to museums. It is interesting to note in the film (Who Killed the Electric Car) how GM not only Stopped production but went out of its Way to destroy all existing EV1 by crushing them. A large part of the film accounts for GM's efforts to demonstrate to California that there was no demand for their product, and then to take back every EV1 and dispose of them. GM never responded to the EV drivers' offer to pay the residual lease value ($1.9 million was offered for the remaining 78 cars in Burbank before they were crushed).
The California Air Resources Board passed the ZEV mandate in 1990. The film details the California Air Resources Board's reversal of the mandate after suits from automobile manufacturers, the oil industry, and the George W. Bush administration.
|
