Revenge of the Electric Car

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Not long ago, the electric car was left for dead by greedy special interests. In a new documentary, Chris Paine chronicles its unlikely resurrection.

If we can’t have flying cars in 2009, is it so much to ask to at least have a car that plugs in?

According to the EPA, passenger vehicles account for nearly 20 percent of America’s greenhouse gas emissions and 40 percent of the nation’s oil consumption. In 1991, California addressed the issue with a zero-emissions vehicle mandate, and by 1996 the first of several thousand electric cars hit the streets. Reaching speeds of up to 140 miles per hour and ranges exceeding 150 miles, they were fast and efficient.

But 10 years later, most of them had been crushed. Director Chris Paine, one of the early adopters, responded with a documentary film, Who Killed the Electric Car?, that aimed to solve the mystery of how an efficient, gas-free, high-performance vehicle was suddenly pulled from the market. What he unearthed was a coordinated effort by oil companies, car makers, the federal government, and others to get rid of a product that they feared would disrupt their profits. The New York Times called the film “an effective inducement to rage.”

How times have changed. Today, most major automakers—along with a slew of startups—trumpet the electric car they have in development, with several models debuting this week at the Tokyo Motor Show. Paine spoke to The Daily Beast about his next film, Revenge of the Electric Car, the dazzling new models about to hit the market, and why the old gas-powered dinosaurs will never go away.

Click Image Below for A Gallery of Electric Car Models About to Hit the Market

Who Killed the Electric Car? showed just how passionate the early adopters of GM’s EV1 were. Mel Gibson had to submit a résumé to prove he was worthy of leasing one. How did you end up in that crowd?

I said I would never buy a new car unless it was not running on gasoline. And when GM brought an electric car to market I thought the future had arrived. It was nice feeling at least a little bit of control over our energy equation. So when we had to return the cars because the leases expired and there was no option to buy them, it was pretty hard to take. And we were convinced that there was more to the story than what the car companies were saying—that there was no customer demand. Most people just never had a chance to drive them.

So how did you decide to do a film about this?

• Gavin Newsom’s California Dream

• Jeffrey Sachs on the Fight Against World HungerIt started with trying to get the media to cover it. We contacted 60 Minutes and 20/20 and said, “Hey, this is a worthy story. California and the car companies have spent millions of dollars. This is a radical new technology.” And we couldn’t even get a short piece. So we decided to hold a mock funeral for the electric car. We got some coverage, but the reports were, “Electric car Enthusiasts Say Goodbye to Electric Cars and Get Ready for Hybrids and Hydrogen Cars,” which we never mentioned at all. We thought, “My God, is the media getting a press release from the car companies saying that’s the story?” That’s when we decided to make a movie.

It’s disturbing to hear the news organizations weren’t more interested in investigating.

While we were making the film we asked why and were told, anecdotally, that a lot of television news had gotten burned by their Firestone rollover coverage. The media did a great job reporting these SUVs weren’t actually that safe when you consider they rollover when the tires blow, and so a lot of them lost advertising revenue. In those days nearly 50 percent of television advertising was auto.

That film had a long list of suspects for who killed the electric car: the auto industry, oil companies, consumers, the California Air Resources Board, the federal government, and the hydrogen fuel cell. All were found guilty to some extent. Are any of them exonerated in Revenge of the Electric Car?

Nobody likes to change, and that’s really why better technology takes a while to break through. Every one of those suspects had good reason to be skeptical or kill the electric car. The car companies, because they didn’t think they could make money on them in the short-term and they were making such big margins on SUVs. And they didn’t want a car that might rob their aftermarket.

Because there are fewer parts and less maintenance for electric vehicles?

Right. There’s no transmission and no tune-ups or oil changes required. My Toyota RAV4 EV (electric vehicle) has never needed service and the EV1 had one service call in the five years I had it.