Who Killed the Electric Car? March 22
I just got through watching this movie and I am MAD! For those who don’t know, Who Killed the Electric Car is a documentary about why it was that the all electric car was developed and deployed and subsequently destroyed by the major car companies. The short version of the story is that California passed a law mandating a certain percentage of cars sold in California be zero emission at certain dates. The car companies complied and developed these cars, but at the same time they fought the legislation. As soon as they were successful at turning over the ruling, they took back the cars they had produced (and were leasing to customers) and CRUSHED THEM. Watching the callousness in the way the car companies essentially rooted against their own product is astounding. Taking cars off the road that work perfectly and destroying them so that no one would know about them is just about the most heartless, cold thing I have ever seen.
For a better synopsis of the issues than I can give, please check out the Plug in America. I am as big a fan of anyone for developing a hydrogen based economy, but this movie makes the point (and rather well I might add) that electric vehicles can work NOW. A hydrogen based economy needs a massive infrastructure to be built before we can even begin to have one… battery based electric vehicles require NO additional infrastructure and can boost fuel economies to over 100 mpg right now. The movie deals with all this and more and will make you want to go out there and change the world!
