Who Killed the Electric Car?

WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?
Presented by the Sierra Club of Northern Alameda County

Special thanks go to Kent Lewandowski for films in this film series on Eco Collapse.

This 2006 documentary film explores the birth, limited commercialization, and then the death of the battery electric vehicle in the U.S., specifically the General Motors EV1 of the 1990s. This documentary film explores the roles of automobile manufacturers, the oil industry, the U.S. government, batteries, hydrogen vehicles, and consumers in severly limiting the development and adoption of this technology. The EV1 was made available for lease in Southern California in the late 1990s, after the California Air Resources Board passed the ZEV mandate in 1990, and after implications of the events depicted for air pollution, environmentalism, Middle East politics, and global warming became known. This documentary details the California Air Resources Board’s reversal of its mandate after lawsuits from automobile manufacturers, the oil industry, and the George W. Bush administration. The film points out that Bush’s chief influences, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Andrew Card, are all former board members and executives of oil and auto companies. Most of the film chronicles GM’s efforts to demonstrate to California that there was no demand for their product. GM takes back every EV1 and disposes of it. A few were disabled and given to museums and universities, but almost all were crushed. GM never responded to drivers of EV1s who wanted to pay the residual lease value of the cars. Several activists are shown being arrested while they attempt to block the GM car carriers taking the remaining EV1s off to be crushed.

Before and after the films, everyone’s invited to indulge in our Humanist Tea House

$5 donations are accepted