Over the holidays I saw Who Killed the Electric Car?, a documentary narrated by Martin Sheen about the rise and fall of the electric car in California just ten short years ago. As for what I learned...the good news is that the electric car is not a futuristic dream. When will batteries be ready to let electric cars go fast enough and last long enough to be practical and desirable for today's US drivers? They already are. One of the maddening things about the film is the realization for those of us that aren't in the Golden State that the technology we have hoped for has already come and, thanks to an assortment of corporate interests, gone. And then an extra level of outrage to realize that the demise seems to have all been by design.
As for the film, I think I'd like to have seen it organized a bit differently. Toward the end, they briefly flip through "the suspects" for who killed the car. Was it the California Air Resources Board? The car companies? The oil companies? The consumers? Building the case against each one at a time was interesting and convincing. After telling the basic story, why not spend more of the film in that mode? Maybe it wouldn't have worked that way, but as it was it seemed a bit scattered and repetitive. Still, for the educational content alone, it's highly recommended.
The most promising moment of the film (the only...?) came at the very end...after questioning the integrity and the environmentalism of the hybrid movement--especially compared to the electric car. We get a brief glance at the hybrid plug-in, which looks to be the next level in fuel-saving autos. This would allow cars to function as electric cars for, essentially, 40 miles or so and then, if a longer trip was taken, the gradual shift to gasoline would take over. Since most people don't drive more than that in a day, many would rarely, if ever, need to use fuel. Sounds great, huh? And here's what's even better--a story I just read announcing GM's plan to beat competitors to the market with an impressive-looking hybrid plug-in called the Volt, which still has a few wee bugs in it...
The roadblocks include making it affordable and safe. "Thermal runaway can be a problem," admits Volt chief engineer Nick Zielinski. Huh? That means lithium-ion batteries can overheat and set your car on fire.I suppose spontaneous combustion would be some bad automotive PR. Still, maybe it's too much to hope, but I'd like to believe that a plug-in might be my next car! Who's with me?
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