Movie Review (PLUS+): Who Killed the Electric Car?

We watched Who Killed the Electric Car? recently. It came out in 2006, but it seems at least 5 years older than that. It's a pretty good documentary about an electric car experiment in California in the mid-90's. California tried to mandate lower fleet emissions for the car makers and the only way the companies could pull it off was to introduce low- or no-emission vehicles. Several companies floated options, but the only one to make much headway was the EV-1 from General Motors. This film documents the rise of this car, the admiration it got from its drivers, and its eventual fall when the car companies got California to get rid of the mandate. It then tries to decide who's fault it is that the car disappeared. The movie definitely has an agenda. It's clear from the outset that the assumption is that the electric car was infallibly good and anything that had to do with it's demise is inherently evil. Understanding that point of view, it's still an interesting look at a phenomenon that went mainly unnoticed by most people. You should definitely check it out if you are at all interested in alternative energy sources or corporate motivations.

Now for the PLUS+

Part of the reason this movie seemed slightly dated is that it doesn't have much to say about more recent developments in this arena. It makes the assumption that if the electric cars had stayed on the road, most people would be driving them now. It seems to miss the point that we have a very entrenched gasoline-based transportation system that is unlikely to be duplicated by a string of delay-causing charging stations. It does touch momentarily on Bush's "hydrogen economy" that everybody knows isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Now, I'm all for an alternative to running my car on dead dinosaurs that are mainly buried under dictators. However, I'm realistic enough to understand that there are going to have to be some stepping stones on the way out of that world. The hybrids are the current best option, but they're really just improvements in fuel economy. They still get all of their energy from the same dead dinos. There are also ethanol and biodiesel, which get us away from the fossil fuels, but they are only marginally better, as they are more expensive (especially considering farm subsidies) and potentially interfere with our food supply capability.

The next realistic option coming down the pike are the plug-in hybrids. Like the hybrids, they have dual gas and electric power systems, but unlike the hybrids that charge their batteries solely from their gas engines, they can be plugged into the electric grid and charged, giving them 50 miles or whatever of range before the gas engine would even need to be turned on at all. For most people, this means that the majority of their driving would be on purely electric power, but if necessary, they would still have the convenience and range offered by gasoline. This approach is a more workable alternative that does not require a completely redundant energy delivery infrastructure.

This is also something that is realistically in the works. As of July 27th, Toyota had announced that it was going to work with the University of California in Berkley to road test two plug-in hybrid Prius cars. Unfortunately, as of August 9th, Toyota has delayed this series of cars, because, according to this article, Toyota's type of batteries, "have shown a tendency to overheat, catch fire and even explode."

This delay opens up some space for U.S. auto makers to make up some ground. Toyota had been far ahead, but this setback may allow for some catchup. The movie had a section about an inventor that had sold his battery company to GM for use in the EV-1 after their original batteries turned out to be less than stellar. However, as soon as the EV-1 was removed from the market, GM sold the battery company to Chevron, who essentially mothballed it. However, I happened to be working at a company that tests batteries a couple days after seeing the movie. My contact there had heard of the battery company in question and told me that Chevron had since sold it back to GM, who are using it for their new generation of electric and hybrid vehicles. The EV-1 is gone (most have been destroyed), but the concept Chevy Volt looks like something I'd be happy to drive, and is the type of car that we are more likely to see in the future.