So I just watched this movie and I don't really get why they made a movie about this. It appears that the EV1, a GM produced all electric car, was being leased in CA in the mid-90s. I remember it well because that was about the time I went to my first Auto Show in Detroit and GM had a huge display about the car. Anyway, at the same time GM introduces the EV1, CA decides to mandate that a certain percentage of each manufacturer's cars had to be emission-free (electric) in order to be allowed to sell any cars there. The mandate was tier so it was something like 2 percent in 1995 up to 10 percent in 2003. Well, GM liked the idea of selling an electric car but no car company, including GM, liked the mandate. So they stopped trying to sell the car and consumers didn't really want it anyway because it could only get 60 miles per charge. CA ends up tossing out the mandate and GM takes back all its leased cars and destroys them. This is where the movie spends most of its time. They follow these crazy EV1 drivers, they only sold maybe a couple thousands cars total, who want their cars back and even hold a big funeral for the cars. The funny thing is, CA invested tons of money on fueling station and then just pulled the plug and GM wouldn't even let the people buy the cars. Instead GM paid to haul them off and have them crushed. The owners were offering $1.9 million for the cars and instead of accepting it, GM paid to destroy the cars. Those are the kind of business decisions that got GM where it is today. They try to figure out who is to blame for the loss of the electric car and they spread it evenly but ultimately it almost always lies with the consumer because if they want something bad enough they will pay for it and not enough people were willing to pay for the EV1. Anyway, these people spent tons of time fighting over 78 cars when they could have spent that time working toward a more financially realistic and practical vehicle like the plug-in hybrid.
The movie spends 5 minutes talking about he plug-in hybrid at the end and I went to a presentation about it at the Green Festival last Spring. The concept is simple and practical, it is half conventional hybrid and half electric car. You plug it in and drive the first 50 miles on pure electricity (battery) and then when the charge runs out you drive it like a typical hybrid. This solves the big drawback of the EV1 which was that people didn't like being limited to 60 miles. Funny thing is the average person only drives 29 miles per day. Of course it depends on driving habits but the plug-in can get 125 mpg. And if you consistently drive less than 50 miles a day, you may never have to fill up. The other advantage is that it has no special plug-in system so you can plug in anywhere. I'm not really sure why Toyota hasn't rolled out a plug-in version of its Prius yet but I believe we will see it. This car is clearly better for the environment but theoretically it will make the oil last longer which does nothing to improve our dependence. So this is really a near term patch until we find a financially viable non-fossil fuel powered vehicle. And it ain't corn based ethanol either (unfortunately because I own an ethanol stock).
In summary, skip the movie and surf the net for plug-in hybrid info and long-term solutions for the hour and a half you would've spent watching the movie. My belief is that the only sustainable solution is to run everything on electricity and to get that electricity from non-polluting sources such as wind, solar, hydro, etc. It would be nice if I was alive to see that day but I'm afraid it won't happen.
