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Film review

A conspiracy theory

By STEVE PERSALL
Published August 10, 2006

Who Killed the Electric Car? (PG) (92 min.) - For the price of less than 3 gallons of gasoline, moviegoers can learn how we might have avoided the current fuel crunch. Not that the idea of automobiles powered by electricity is no longer possible; Chris Paine's documentary suggests a lot of powerful people simply won't let it happen.

Ten years ago, General Motors developed a vehicle, the EV1, that could be quickly recharged for at least an average day's worth of driving. The rollout strategy began in California with leasing plans for hundreds of electric cars that were never available for purchase. Drivers, including Paine, loved the cars' sleek looks and quietly humming engines, not to mention the dollars saved by driving past gas stations. When the lease contracts ended, so did the EV1.

GM rounded up the cars in 2004, refusing to extend the leases. Paine and other electric car advocates attempted to locate them, but what they discovered was that GM crushed and shredded the vehicles, destroying key evidence that electric cars are feasible modes of transportation. The possible reasons why that happened are presented in Paine's film. The answers are something like Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, in which many suspects participated in murder.

Paine's documentary proposes that GM was pressured by oil companies that had grown accustomed to selling billions of gallons of fuel annually. Consumers were fooled by disinformation campaigns painting the technology as something to mock or fear. Gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles enjoyed a sexier marketing image and burned more fuel. The California Air Resources Board had urged auto manufacturers toward tougher emission standards that inspired the EV1 but rescinded those rules, possibly under pressure from oil companies.

Who Killed the Electric Car? is a fascinating topic occasionally presented a bit too dry and repetitiously. The roster of talking heads praising the concept and venting suspicions ranges from credible experts (former U.S. energy adviser S. David Freeman) to the unfortunately bad timing of having Mel Gibson, crazy Apocalypto beard and all, discuss his preference for driving an EV1. Toss in liberal activist Martin Sheen as narrator, and Paine opens the door for dismissive rebuttal that shouldn't have anything to do with the topic.

Paine's best eyewitness to the death of an idea is Chelsea Sexton, a former GM employee who worked to market the EV1, leased one, and was stunned when such an apparently good idea was scrapped. Sexton continues to advocate electric cars in hybrid forms. Of course, the word "hybrid" has taken on several definitions lately, and Paine's movie suggests some are scams to present an environmentalist image for auto companies. The question posed in his film's title isn't answered definitively, but it's worth asking while we're paying out the nose for mostly imported oil.

An interview with Sexton will be published Friday in Floridian. B+

- STEVE PERSALL, Times film critic

[Last modified August 8, 2006, 13:38:39]