Who Killed The Electric Car

Our family watched this film on dvd (via netflix) a few days ago. It was full of surprises and new information for me and not only made my blood boil, but left me with new hope.
Why? Because we've already designed and mass produced excellent, efficient workable electric cars! I had no idea.

The reason I had no idea these cars were so great is the blood boiling part. They were never really advertised and virtually all of the wonderful cars that GM, Honda, Toyota and Ford all made were crushed or shredded. And Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles were used as a bait and switch. Grrrrr.

In case you didn't know this, there will never be hydrogen cars (aside from a few multi-million dollar prototypes). The hydrogen hype was a massive media campaign to distract folks from the demise of the electric cars. Why were they killed? And why no hydrogen? Watch the film.

But things have changed since they killed these cars. Katrina and Al Gore played a big part in our growing awareness of global warming. And the whole Peak Oil scare has had an impact on our collective psyche. Not to mention Iraq.

The battery technology was good enough already. Suddenly it's getting even better. I think we will have electric cars and plug in hybrids. It's just a question of whether we'll get them in time.

I didn't expect to like this film so much, or to get so much out of it. You might want to check it out.