Review of Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006) by Belén A — 13 Aug 2009

"Who Killed the Electric Car?", directed by Chris Paine, is a documentary, but also a non-traditional whodunit. The victim, in this case, is the electric car, but also every person who was robbed of the possibility of contributing to a cleaner environment by owning a battery operated car. The culprits are many, and they include the oil industry, greedy car companies, the US government, the Californian government, regulatory agencies and even consumers drawn to flashier cars.

In order to understand what happened, Chris Paine follows the process that goes from the creation and limited production of a specific type of electric car, General Motors' EV1, to the sad and senseless destruction of every vehicle of that car model. He puts events into context, and interviews, among others, activists that tried to keep the EV1 alive, consumers that loved that model, and engineers and technicians that created the technology that made the EV1 possible.

After watching this documentary, you cannot help but realize that a big opportunity was squandered by those who were thinking short term. Thankfully, life always gives second chances. Let's do better.

Highly recommended!