With gas prices hovering at obscene heights (and a hefty percentage of the profits finding their way into the pockets of those charming Islamofascists doing so much good around the world), is there any better time for a film called Who Killed the Electric Car?
The somewhat cutesy conceit of Chris Paine's documentary is to present itself as a murder mystery, tracing the life and death of an under-publicized experimental vehicle that many saw as a major step toward solving our energy/environmental woes. In 1996, GM introduced the EV-1 (also known by the unfortunate commercial moniker, Impact), a sleek, battery-operated automobile that cruised along quickly, quietly and completely without gas. Eight years later, the EV-1s were completely gone. GM only leased the cars, never sold them, and when the leases were up, the cars were all recalled, dragged out to the California desert and summarily destroyed.
Paine (himself a former electric car driver) points fingers at the various parties he deems responsible for EV-1's demise, and it shouldn't be giving much away to report that the culprits include Bush's cronies in the oil industry, big business, timid and/or conservative politicians, and, most distressingly, you and me — change-resistant and under-informed consumers.
Who Killed the Electric Car doesn't make its case as efficiently or eloquently as it might — Paine tends to come off a little preachy and disorganized, overloading us with facts and figures that get a bit convoluted while leaving lots of questions unanswered — but the message is still an important one, and the film makes a worthwhile companion piece to An Inconvenient Truth. Written and directed by Chris Paine.
Who Killed the Electric Car? 3 stars (NR) opens Aug. 11 at Tampa Theatre. Call theater to confirm.
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2006.