Like other hotties who found their original fan base in California, the star of the sadly funny, humorously serious, utterly timely documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” lived fast and died young.
Thanks, however, to director Chris Paine, the EV1, – a sleek fox of a sports coupe manufactured by General Motors – might yet have a tale that makes legendary its demise.
Loosely meant to resemble Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” this feisty, sweet-natured film treats the EV1 – leased to California drivers, then confiscated and unceremoniously destroyed – as the victim of a crime.
But who did the (mis)deed?
Suspects include the usual ones: car companies, the oil industry, the government. But the list of culprits also features battery life, competing technologies like hydrogen fuel cells, the California Air Resources Board (or CARB), and yes, consumers.
While Paine, himself a one-time EV1 lessee, is unabashedly partial to the promise of electric-car technology over petrol, he includes interviewees who don’t even agree a crime ever occurred. Lack of demand ended the scant supply, they argue. (No, those contrarians aren’t all GM spokesman David Barthmuss. )
In 1990, CARB adopted a mandate that told automakers a certain percentage of cars sold in California had to be ZEVs (zero-emissions vehicles). By 2003, that percentage would have to be 10 percent.
Even as the car companies marshaled their forces to fight the regulation – they won – they also began to comply with the directive. Between 1996 and 2005, the EV1 and a small fleet of other all-electric vehicles made by Honda, Ford and Toyota, hit California roadways.
The film begins with a funeral. Granted, it’s goofy, the sort of event that will have some rolling their eyes and saying “only in California, kids.” Yet by the time Paine shows a number of new cars waiting to be shredded or crushed, you too might feel crushed.
In fact, who mourns the electric car is nearly as interesting as who ended its life. In addition to an intriguing collection of engineers, scientists, and battery inventors, are some familiar faces, including Mel Gibson, Peter Horton and Tom Hanks. Yet it’s one-time EV1 sales specialist Chelsea Sexton who upstages everyone with her optimistic drive.
“Who Killed the Electric Car?” has its share of solemn moments. Most of them come in Martin Sheen’s schoolmarm- meets-
former-prez-Barlet narration. Yet, there’s more than enough wit to remind that some funerals are best experienced as wakes. A spirited celebration of the deceased can honor the lost opportunity even as it challenges the living, breathing, concerned survivors to demand more from corporations, government, ourselves.
And then there’s always Phyllis Diller to provide perspective. “The reason I’m here,” she says in that brilliant squawk, “is because I’m old.” She then recounts her memories of the first electric car. Yup, the one tooling around right before Henry Ford changed everything.
“Who Killed the Electric Car?” | *** RATING
PG for brief mild language|1 hour, 31 minutes|DOCUMENTARY|Written and directed by Chris Paine; featuring Chelsea Sexton, Dave Barthmuss, Jim Boyd, Peter Horton, Mel Gibson, Alan Coccini, John R Dabels, Collette Divine, Alexandra Paul, S. David Freeman, Alan C. Lloyd, Dan Neil, Iris and Stanford Ovshinsky|Opens today at the Chez Artiste.
