Documentary Description
This documentary deals with the history of the electric car, its
development and commercialization, mostly focusing on the General
Motors EV1, which was made available for lease in Southern California,
after the California Air Resources Board passed the ZEV mandate in
1990, as well as the implications of the events depicted for air
pollution, environmentalism, Middle East politics, and global warming.
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. It points out that
Bush’s chief influences, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Andrew
Card, are all former executives and board members of oil and auto
companies.
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. A few were disabled and given to
museums and universities, but almost all were found to have been
crushed; 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). Several activists are shown
being arrested in the protest that attempted to block the GM car
carriers taking the remaining EV1s off to be crushed.
The film explores some of the reasons that the auto and oil industries
worked to kill off the electric car. Wally Rippel is shown explaining
that the 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. Others explained the killing
differently. GM spokesman Dave Barthmuss argued it was lack of consumer
interest due to the maximum range of 80–100 miles per charge, and the
relatively high price.
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