starring: Martin Sheen
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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 0043396152861
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Item Dimensions:
Label: Sony Pictures
Languages:
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
MPN: 043396152861
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: November 14, 2006
Running Time: 92 minutes
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Chronicles the development of the electric car as an alternative to gas-run cars and examines the car manufacturing industry's fight against the Zero
Amazon.com:
It begins with a solemn funeral…for a car. By the end of Chris Paine's lively and informative documentary, the idea doesn't seem quite so strange. 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
Stills from Who Killed the Electric Car? (click for larger image)
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Writer/Director Chris Paine Blogs About Who Killed the Electric Car
When Who Killed the Electric Car premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (on the same weekend as An Inconvenient Truth), we wondered whether movie goers were ready for a new kind of 'action film'. Fortunately people jumped onboard and this seems even more true today. We put this DVD together after the release of the film to include a dozen short scenes we couldn't quite fit into our story. My favorite is one with Stan and Iris Ovshinsky who developed the revolutionary battery technology that powered GM's electric car (and today's Prius). These two brilliant octogenarians took our small camera crew on a Willy Wonka style tour of their inventions including the world's largest thin film solar cell factory. As we stood under a football field size machine in Troy Michigan, I blustered "Is solar power back?" Stan exclaimed " What?! Solar never went away... What was back was backward thinking!" And as his machine cranked out miles of solar cells above us, we knew he was right.
I'm especially glad that the optimistic last scene of Who Killed the Electric Car has proven that we weren't just wishful thinkers when we finished our edit. The clips feature the first glimpse of the ultra fast Tesla electric sports prototype as well the Zenn neighborhood electric vehicle. Both cars are starting to roll off production lines today. And while the State of California (and some car companies) are still gambling on hydrogen fuel cells, plug-in cars are proving to be more environmentally efficient and popular. Early adopters deserve a lot of the credit. Oil companies and the internal combustion engine monopoly may have "killed" thousands of electric cars (EVs) in the 1990s, but EVs are coming back. (Stay tuned for next film...)
I hope you'll find our documentary takes you on a wild ride out of the 20th century and into the 21st. --Chris Paine, Writer/Director
Average Rating: 
Rating:
- A Must See DocumentaryIf you drive a car that runs on gas, you should watch this video.
Our planet's use of gas and oil needs to stop. The filth, death, and destruction that oil creates has gone on far too long. Better, cleaner and cheaper fuel alternatives have been available for decades, but we don't use them. The video will show how an entire planet of over 4 billion people are asleep (with a few exceptions).
Time for us all to wake up.
Rating:
- my reviewI was very happy that this came so quickly and that it looks like it's in really good shape. Would be happy to buy from this seller in the future.
Rating:
- Great Documentary, Very EntertainingThis is a no-BS documentary that explains the history of the electric car -- and why we aren't all driving them right now.
So what's the answer to the titular question? After all is said and done, whodunnit? The guilty parties:
Oil Companies - Conspired against the electric car for obvious reasons. One of their methods was to buy electric car patents... and do nothing with them.
U.S. Car Companies - Sabatoged the success of their own (electric) cars to make them appear inefficient so that the government wouldn't force them to make non-emitting vehicles. Put quarterly earnings ahead of the big picture, especially GM. (Does that surprise anyone?)And guess who rules the auto industry now? Japan, with Honda and Toyota's hybrid-electric vehicles. Efficiency isn't just for hippies; it makes economic sense.
Hydrogen Cells - A bait-and-switch to distract from the more realistic "alternative" vehicle. Hydrogen-powered cars will always be 10-15 years away.
California Air Resources Board - Repealed the Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate that the car companies feared so much.
The U.S. Government - Supported industry's attack on the electric car. For example, the Bush administration wasted billions on hydrogen-cell technology that went nowhere. Bush's stimulus bill also gave far more money in tax credits to people for buying SUV's and Hummers than for buying electric cars. (Fiscal conservatism?)
Consumers - For remaining ignorant and distrustful of innovative technology. The average person drives 29 miles a day, but people don't trust a car that can go 90 miles on one charge. Why?
Not guilty:
The Cars Themselves, and Their Distrusted Batteries - Electric cars aren't some pipedream. The technology exists. In fact, the cars existed... until the car companies had them crushed.
This film is excellent. It's as entertaining as it is informative, and it manages to avoid the sensationalism many documentaries suffer from and the depressing tone and alarmism common in environmental films. I highly recommend that everyone see this.
Rating:
- The real truth about electric carsA must see documentary, the real truth about electric cars and their viability.
The short answer is "They are viable - there is no doubt".
The only reason they are not mass produced is that oil companies don't have the guts to change their business model and start diversifying their interests.
Rating:
- We are still waiting for an electric carAfter viewing "Who Killed the Electric Car?", I am confused. GM now says that the Chevrolet Volt is only 2 or 3 years away from going into production. What was wrong with the EV1 that was leased to California drivers? They loved it. So what did GM do? They demanded that every single one be returned to them, and, save for 1 single EV1 that ended up in an auto museum, they were crushed. But don't blame just GM. Ford, Toyota, and Honda also had electric vehicles on the road during the same time period. What happened to those vehicles? We still cannot buy or lease any of them. What happened to all those electric vehicles? Where are they now? We are still waiting for viable electric cars to be sold as alternatives to gasoline powered internal combustion polluting cars. The best that we have right now are hybrids.
As the movie states, GM crushed the EV1 (literally) and only months later, introduced the Hummer. Kind of hard to feel sorry for GM now, isn't it?
