I watched ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?’ about a month ago.  I was pretty interested in the film actually, but it turned out being nothing more than a two hour bitch-fest from a bunch of ignorant, self righteous hippies.  I hate how left wing propaganda is now sold as oscar-contending documentaries.

‘Who killed’ focuses on the release of a GM electronic car called the EV1.  The car was released in 1996 for lease, but was later recalled.  The movie basically shows people bitching about why these cars were recalled.

One of the reasons why the EV1 was produced was that California issued a Zero Emissions Mandate in 1990, that required that a certain percent of vehicles sold in California to meet zero emission standards.

And the thing here is that this is one of of those ridiculous mandates that only California would pass.  You have a problem, poor air quality, of questionable impact to the community.   Then you have the state coming up with an answer to this problem that may or may not exist that requires technology that has not even been commercialized yet.

Basically California was requiring auto manufacturers to research and develop a technology that may or may not be commercially viable.  Not only that, but electric cars still consume electricity, which is produced by oil, gas and coal power plants.  In other words, this mandate didn’t even address the air quality problems that it was created for…it would simply replace one dirty emission with another.

This is what happens when you put ignorant fucking hippies in office.

So once this mandate was passed auto manufacturers scrambled to produce electric cars.  And this is a big deal, costing millions if not billions of dollars in R&D for each auto manufacturer.

One of the programs was GM’s EV1.

The problem was these cars were tiny death-traps that were slow and had limited range.  ‘Who Killed’ shows lots of dedicated EV1 owners that praise their car, but when you see this thing you can tell it will not have mass market appeal.  The first generation of EV1 cars had a range of about 55 to 75 miles with a max speed of 80 MPH.  If you’ve ever driven in California you know that both of these stats are lacking.  Also, these cars are pretty expensive.  The lease price of these cars was based on an MSRP of $34k to $44k.

After the EV1 was released for lease the California Zero Emissions mandate was overturned.  A few years later, GM stopped the EV1 program and destroyed the cars.  Other electric vehicle programs were stopped as well.

For most of the movie, you see a bunch of people complaining how their cars were taken back and destroyed.  And of course, since these people are hippies they believe the recall of the cars was due to some big conspiracy.  And they protest and make a big fake check that is supposedly backed by enough money to purchase back all the remaining EV1s.

The problem here is that these people are idiot assholes.  They can’t imagine why a multi-billion dollar auto manufacturer would not want to support a line of just a few hundred cars that require new technology, new servicing techniques, and new parts.  They can’t understand why GM wouldn’t want to roll out parts and service manuals to all service locations in California, not to mention retrain its service staff…all for a couple hundred cars.

Not only that, but after the Zero Emissions Mandate was overturned the push to create electric refueling stations stopped.  So now, GM is supposed to try and market a car with a 55 to 75 mile range that you need to refuel at home or at one of only a handful of electric refueling stations in the state.

The point is, no one killed the electric car.  It was dead from the start.  The cars were ugly and dangerous - especially on California’s SUV-packed freeways.  The state lacked the infrastructure to recharge EVs, and electric technology lacked the range to make these cars practical.

‘Who Killed’ suggests that auto manufacturers had a huge money maker on their hands, but decided to kill it for a number of reasons.  Like a conspiracy from oil companies, the right wings, the middle east.  The reality is that EV programs were a money loser from the start because EV technology at that point was just not practical.

The reason why I’m bringing this up is because Tesla finally released its Tesla Roadster this weekend after several delays and years of waiting.  The Tesla, of course, is an electric car, but not those tiny super slow golf-cart looking things.  It’s an electric sports car that can go from 0 to 60 in four seconds with a top speed of 125 mph.  Not only that but the car has a range of 225 miles - more than enough for most commutes.

The Tesla Roadster was sold out a year before it was even released.  And these aren’t cheap cars - they start at $106k, but can reach $130k with options.  In total 600 Roadsters were sold for this year, with another 1,500 expected for 2009.

I think what the makers of ‘Who Killed’ don’t understand is that in order for a car to have mass-market appeal it must appeal to the mass market.  A car is a device that is used everyday that must also be highly reliable.  Electric cars in 1996 were not that.  No one killed the electric car - these vehicles were just not practical.  I think the sales of the Tesla Roadster prove that.

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