Who Killed the Electric Car movie

Yes it has been out there for 2 years, I just viewed it and AWESOME!!! :rockon:

 

One thing everyone needs to take into consideration is that this movie only told one side of the story. Don't blindly believe everything they claim as being the truth. Just like the news media, information is swayed or left out to make the story's point.

 

I rented WKTEC back in July and watched it several times. Intruiging and disturbing.

I don't recall the movie proving the EV-1 could be produced to sell for profit.

 

As for availability of the movie.
new for under 10 bucks on Amazon.com, and plenty of used one for a few bucks cheaper. I'm sure auction sites have it as well.................

Haven't watched it as yet, but I am sure when I finally do it will have a liberal "bent" to it , similar to any Michael Moore film, informative, but somewhere not on point as far as the full truth goes.
I don't think you could pay me to sit through the Al Gore film.............

 

That is exactly what I thought when I watched it. While it was interesting, they clearly wanted the viewer to believe only one side of the information.

 

The political points of the movie will always have supporters and opponents. What was the real shocker was that GM fielded a great electric car. In fact it was good enough to convince many people that electric cars are the future.

 

it used to be on youtube in chunks.

check torrents or irc sources.

amazon had it for sale legally but no longer..

great docu

I am surprised efusco hasn't seen it!

 

When it comes to competing in a global market, I don't recall GM proving they could produce anything to sell for profit in the last few years. That's part of the problem.

 

GM is profitable in all of their markets excluding the US and western Europe. They are also gaining market share in other markets specifically in Russia, Asia, and Latin America.

They were also significantly improving their financial position as a whole. Back in 2005 they lost 8.6%, 3.7% in 2006, and 1.1% in 2007. GM has been working a recovery plan that was working. What they didn't plan for was auto sales dropping from 16 M in 2007 to ~14.5 M in 2008 and a projected 11 M in 2009.

Take a look at their investor information at General Motors | Corporate Website | GM

 

Whole Foods Market has DVDs of it on sale. Its not that hard to find.

 

I am sure when I finally do it will have a liberal "bent" to it , similar to any Michael Moore film, informative, but somewhere not on point as far as the full truth goes.

You use the "liberal" word as if it was a bad thing.

 

Blame the politicians in Washington. They are getting off scot free in this. They sat on their fat cans while all this was happening. I blame the Republicans especially, who dominated Congress in the 90s up to 2006, and were in the pockets of the car and oil companies. Now they want to bury the car industry. A bunch of hypocrites.

On liberals: If you aren't a millionaire and you criticize liberals, you are an uninformed idiot. Liberals are responsible for 8 hour workdays, company paid health benefits, Medicare, Social security, and just about every piece of legislation you now benefit from.

 

One point not mentioned in the movie, but immediately picked up by my brother, who is a businessman, was GM's motive in destroying all the cars at the end: the tax code. In order to write off all the expense of the EV project as research, they could not allow any product to exist on the street at the end of the project. Ergo, crush the cars.

So blame it on Washington bureaucrats, GM's desire to maximize profits (uh, isn't that what corporations are supposed to do?), or plain lack of imagination by everyone concerned (my vote).

 

Hi Doc Willie,

I think your brother is right. The problem with that tactic is that GM strategically lost even more money not selling its hybrid version during the 2000 to 2007 period.

Allot of the problem with management is the insistence on the hear-and-now, and not the tomorrow. You get line managers promoted up. That is the goal of the line manager, to work his/her way up. At some point they have to stop being majors, and start being generals. And not many of them make that transition well. The companies often reward the loyal line manager with a position they can never properly fill, just for being around for a long time.

 

Economics played a major roll. Remember $1. gas? If an electric (or Plug-In Prius) gets the equivalent of about a gallon's worth of gas milage and yet only costs a dollar of electricity, it makes little sense to do that when gas is a dollar! Apart from environmental concerns, it makes little sense to the average Joe (plumber or no) to go electric and accept the limitations and costs when gas is near $1.

Unfortunately gasoline is nearing $1. again! Still many great reasons to go Plug-in and electric, but without the cost advantages the electric car may be killed again

The oil business has always been boom and bust. Strong growth in demand raises prices and production followed by slowing growth and oversupply/lower prices.

Toyota got it right by continuing R&D on hybrid even though fuel costs were low. GM saw profits in the short term with Hummer types while Toyota saw the bigger picture of higher fuel costs, green demand and eventual "Peak Oil".

I thought the movie was pretty fair in it's portrayal of the times and players in the EC demise. Michael Moore would have been much more caustic towards GM and the head of the California Air Resources Board.

My $0.2 worth,

Lee

 

Haha, I guess this is kind of correct. If you want to lay all of that out, and look at how liberals have continually tried to progress this nation, then one could just as easily say "You don't fix what ain't broken" - and blame the current state of affairs solely upon liberals pushing our country to where it is now....

As for killing off the electric car, I think a lot of it had to do with the mindset of many consumers across the country. You can't take an EV on a roadtrip, it wasn't large enough for a big family, in the late 90's it was fancy and a lot of people liked it, I think GM just didn't see a wide enough base.

Why they destroyed all the cars?? I do not know... that's what makes me mad, although pulling them out of the hands of some consumers was maybe a good thing, as what happens when they start to break down? Who would do the work on it? You're not going to have GM certified techs all over to fix them, and I wouldn't want your all purpose mechanic working on an electrical car. Sure, there's backyard mechs that are great at what they do, and they'd be able to take care of their car... but I know way too many people that if you asked them to top off the windshield wiper fluid you'd be lucky enough to catch them before they dump the bottle into the coolant system. It's a shame those cars aren't on the road today, but it is what it is

 

Ok, I'm not believing everything ... now, which part was a lie? The part where nobody wanted them? That there was in fact a 5,000 person waiting list ... which would have been longer but for the fact that GM stopped letting people get on it? The part where they crushed the EV1's then denied it? That part where the oil industry took out ads to defeat implementing a charging infrastructure at local markets? Please till me.

Not true. Although my license has been inactive for 2 years now, the last court appearances I made were in tax court ... and tax was my area of focus. Neither CA or Fed law would force GM to destroy them. Please have him cite a code or case(s) and I'll do my best to clear that view up.

Your kidding, right? Trust GM about GM, after their constant bombardment of dishonisty? Why not check out just about any news source .... which say GM's fate is horrible:

What If GM Did Go Bankrupt...

I went to GM's site anyway. The first thing I see? GM's ongoing lie about grain fuel. Do you know this was a ploy, just so GM could fake higher EPA MPG's ? You see, if their fleets of guzzlers get 18mpg ... well on grain, the EPA only counts the 'gasoling' part of the equasion. So (for example) if the fuel mix was 50/50 gas/grain - the 18mpg car now gets much better. so why believe GM?

The most interesting reads though, are those writers who comment how chapter 11 would actually bring GM back stronger ... and the smaller more streamline GM would actueally let the high tech EV upstart companies be in a better position for doing better.

 

Is this still b eing discussed? They did make a huge public relations mistake by crushing these cars, but the simple fact is that the engineering was not ready for this all-electric car back then. In fact, the engineering is still not ready today for such a vehicle. If they fielded a mass produced all-elctric car today as a mainstream car, there would be a massive recall program in a year when the Li-ion batteries start to blow up and kill people.

To ignore basic engineering facts like safety, range, cost, etc is stupid. The movie was made by a bunch of tree huging loons! Let it die at that.

 

The movie that did not get made was "Who killed the Hybrid Car?". That was because a different car company decided not to give in/give up at the first opportunity. The political and economic environments were very similar, but the companies decisions were vastly different. Sometimes it's not the "technology" determining the outcome.

 

Wow, I did not know that.