I recently watched the 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” from director Chris Paine. The movie focuses on the story of the reinvention and subsequent disappearance of the electric car. Paine goes about exploring the issue by offering up a bevy of “suspects” for the electric car’s demise. The suspect lineup consists of uneducated consumers, oil companies, car companies, the government, the California Air Resources Board (Alan Lloyd), inferior battery technology, and the advent of hydrogen fuel cell technology.

Paine offers an interesting story and has some great insight from folks on both sides of the issue. Of course there are those folks who are decidedly biased and you have to take that into consideration when watching any doc. That being said Paine makes a very good case to prosecute these suspects: all of them!

So many factors went into this car’s demise:
Poor marketing from car companies, which led to:
Uneducated consumers
Oil Lobbies afraid of losing their profit buying up battery manufacturers which led to
Use of inferior battery tech, when better batteries existed
CARB who failed to stand up to the auto lobby regarding hydrogen fuel cells
Hydrogen Fuel Cells sound great, but there are a world of limitations which the electric car had solved, i.e. infrastructure.
The one area where Paine seems to fall short is on the govt., though he does make a compelling case that the oil companies had a controlling interest with people in high posts within the government.

The movie is not long, but manages to make you think. The arguments offered above are simplifications obviously, but give the general idea of how Paine frames each suspect. He uses a few set pieces to drive home his point, the most notable is a faux funeral for GM’s EV1 featuring Ed Begley Jr. among other stars. While the funeral was a little pompous and silly, it did help to showcase the dramatic action taken by General Motors reagarding this model. The company refused to sell their cars, opting to control ownership through leasing only. When the leases ended, the EV1′s were rounded up and taken to GM’s proving grounds where they were crushed. Seems a little drastic to me, but what do I know? Luckily I feel I know a bit more after watching this movie, which is a sign of a good documentary film.

Comparisons to Michael Moore’s work are inevitable, but notice that this is in line with Moore’s good work, i.e. with Bowling for Columbine or Roger & Me. Not the preachiness that pervaded Fahrenheit 9/11. Paine handles each suspect individually, but they also overlap in some ways which create a well woven story.

I highly recommend checking out this story even if you aren’t interested, because it is a great introductory documentary film. It’s paced well and something that anyone in the current gas climate can find interesting.

Film rating 7.5/10