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Who Killed the Electric Car? – A lot of fluff with no substance.

I looked forward to viewing this film as I am interested in vehicles and the possibilities of electric vehicles. While this “documentary” was well made, it presented no opposing viewpoints, nor did it offer much in the way of real information.

The points presented were contradictory to say the least. The film continually makes the statement that so many people wanted an electric car that there was a waiting list of 4000 people.
4000? In the whole country?

Then goes on to accuse GM of scaring people away by their advertisements- while interviewing the marketing director who says he was accused of doing too good a job.
Then there is a scene which asks “Who killed the electric car?” Answer: Consumers!
Well which is it?

The oil companies are also accused but not one shred of evidence is shown- not an email, an interview, a memo- nothing.

The film manages to gloss over the poor range of somewhere between 50 to 80 miles by having Tom Hanks (the actor) saying “..it takes me everywhere I want to go..”
Gee, what about people who work for a living?

Then there was the charging dilemma. The car required a special hook up- which okay you could have installed in your house but what about work? It takes hours to charge.

GM is then accused of only allowing leasing the cars- so presumably they could demand them back and get them out of the marketplace- (a marketplace GM created solely on its own!)- but no mention is made of the COST of the car (reportedly somewhere between $50,000- $75,000). GM leased the cars to make them affordable - $250-$500 a month; then when the lease was up actually had the nerve to ask for them back.

Finally it appears the “huge demand” for the EV was about 78 people in Los Angeles, most of whom were celebrities. Where was the huge demand? The film never interviewed a single person who wanted one that didn’t already have one.

So what is the point of the movie? GM invented the car and put it on the road before anyone required it. Only after the car was introduced did the California Air Resources Boards suddenly demand that 10% of cars sold in that state should be zero emissions- then a few years later rescinded it leaving electric vehicles in limbo.

It appears no one wanted the electric car that’s who killed it.

Music is Emotion


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Topic - Who Killed the Electric Car? – A lot of fluff with no substance. - EdM 06:43:00 11/27/06 (7)


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