Revenge of the Electric Car—documentary film by Chris Paine
The electric car has risen from the dead, and it’s back with a vengeance. This sequel to Paine’s Who Killed the Electric Car premiered last night (April 22, 2011) at the Tribeca Film festival in New York. The film is very informative, suspenseful, and entertaining. It follows three car manufacturers—Tesla, Nissan, and GM—through the sometimes painful, sometimes exhilarating birth of their new electric car babies. It has some amazing footage inside the GM boardroom during the bankruptcy, Tesla hanging on through its financial cliffhanger, and Nissan daring to forge a new path for the automotive industry. It also follows one of many small scale electric car conversion companies—Left Coast Electric—through its struggles to survive. In each case the challenge to move from the conceptual stage to reality is a daunting task.
Key figures in the film appeared for Q&A after the premiere to give their impressions:
· GM executive Bob Lutz, a key promoter of the Volt, said the film “was nicely balanced—especially compared to the previous film” drawing a laugh from the audience (GM was a clear villain in Who Killed the Electric Car?)
· CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, said the film was an “honest portrayal of the trials and tribulations” they had gone through. “Movies like this are a pretty important boost to electrification.”
· Dan Neil of the Wall Street Journal said it was “a great film” and “a beautiful bookend to the first film.” He noted that there “are many forces still holding it [production of electric cars] back” and that the film is “really important” to overcoming these “cultural forces.”
· Chelsea Sexton, champion of the EV1 featured in Who Killed the Electric Car, said the film was a “milestone we deserve to celebrate.”
A spokesperson for the Sierra Club offered their congratulations during the Q&A. Greg “Reverend Gadget” Abbott of Left Coast Electric pointed out that the 7.5 kilowatt hours it takes to produce and refine a gallon of gas is enough to drive an electric car 20 miles, referring to that as a dirty little secret of the oil companies.
Here are some quotes from the film that particularly struck me:
Elon Musk: Electric cars are “a way of moving us off of oil as soon as possible.” Our goal is to make “every car on the road” electric. “We will not stop.”
Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan: “Everybody is going to come to the game.” He also said that every day that his competitors delay in developing electric cars is a good day for Nissan, since they are moving rapidly ahead.
Bob Lutz: Electric cars are “the only way forward” and are “inevitable.”
Additional important messages from the film:
· “As we clean up the grid, the car gets cleaner,” referring to solar and wind and clean sources of electricity.
· “Gasoline engine cars are like the dark ages.”
· In the 1920s there were 300 car companies in the U.S.; now there are 2½ --“it ain’t easy”
All in all I really enjoyed the film and highly recommend it for anyone who drives a car and/or who is interested in saving the planet. The film argues that “It’s just a matter of time” for electric cars to take over. The question is whether it will be in time to stave off climate chaos.
PS: I also had an interesting talk with Bob Lutz after the show—stay tuned for the next blog!
Some photos from the event:
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