Who Killed the Electric Car? ... Coming to theaters soon.

I saw the preview for this upcoming film before "An Inconvenient Truth" and it looks great. From the clips, it takes dead aim at big oil, the U.S. auto industry and BushCo.
Check out the website, which has lots of info, and a listing of opening dates at theaters across the country:
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html

ran a story on the program NOW, a couple of weeks ago on this subject. It had an interview with the director of this documentary, it showed clips of the existing electric car's in california being destroyed.

Not to fear we have a large group of engineers working on the development of new electric car, of course they receive no help from the federal government.

I keep hopping this information keeps getting out to the general public, an the awareness of whats being kept from the citizens reaches a boiling point. Then and only then will the powers to be, make the correct choice.

I think more people need access to that. With Al Gore's movie and that movie, American's will be leaving pissed off and demanding from the retailer's a solution to the diving problem. Had they kept up with the technology.. we may have been able to have the SUV electric car... It isn't that unfeasable, there are buses that run on this technology because they make cities quieter. Can you imagine how much quieter if electric cars were to be replaced.

make these very informative documentaries. They are the real heroes of today.

back in the mid 90s. When the lease was up and they were told to return them, both tried to buy the cars and were turned down flat.

The PBS segment that showed these wonderful cars in perfect shape heading to the crusher was sickening. It was a criminal act and those responsible should be held to account, but they'll probably die old and rich and in bed.

Dude, They’re Taking My Car!
Or Sunset Boulevard Revisited in an Electric Car

by Chris Paine, writer/director of Who Killed the Electric Car?

The buzzer SOUNDS.

GILLIS
Yeah.

The buzzer SOUNDS again. Gillis gets up and opens the door. Two men wearing hats stand outside, one of them carrying a briefcase.

NO. 1
Joseph C. Gillis?

GILLIS
That's right.

The men ease into the room. No. 1 hands Gillis a business card.

NO. 1
We've come for the car.

That’s exactly what it felt like. They may not have been in hats and suits, and I wasn’t living on Sunset Boulevard, but when a certain carmaker sent me a certain letter about my electric car, I knew the repo man had arrived.

The funny thing is that, unlike Mr. Joseph C. Gillis, I had never missed a car payment. Sure, I had been late once, but never long enough to dread a pile of late notices in my mailbox.

I was a perfect customer and when my lease was up, I offered to buy the car or simply extend the lease. But the carmaker said no. They wanted their electric car back.

But why? Why couldn’t I keep my car?

There was nothing wrong with it. In fact, it was the best car I had ever owned by a long shot. Fast…zero to 30 in three seconds. Zero to 60 in eight seconds. Quiet. Just a faint futuristic whirrrr like the Jetson-mobile.

And...oh yes, it didn’t use a drop of gasoline.

All you’d do is charge it up in your garage overnight. It took about $3 of electricity to go 100 miles. Or you could juice it up for free around town at one of dozens of charging stations L.A. built during the 1990s. Some of them were even solar powered. This car had turned me, for the first time in my life, into a car lover.

Frankly, after five years of driving bliss, I had known the end was coming. Other electric car drivers had already lost their cars. In fact, no major carmaker was letting drivers extend their electric car leases. And because almost none were ever available for sale, it was impossible to keep them.

What was left to do? What would Joe do?

GILLIS (V.O.)
I knew they'd be coming around and I wasn't taking any chances, so I kept it a couple of blocks away in a parking lot behind Rudy's Shoeshine Parlor.

But here’s the rub. The parking lot behind Rudy’s Shoeshine Parlor disappeared years ago and so had Rudy’s. And second, even if I could find another safe house, I’d likely end up in court eventually for a stolen car. And when I lost, in addition to a felony, as the contract clarified, I’d be liable for GM’s legal fees. Multiply four corporate lawyers times two years and you’ve got a bill that Norma Desmond couldn’t pay.

For those who knew how easy it was to live without gasoline; for those who knew you could charge a car off of your house without a pound of CO2 adding to global warming; for those who loved their electric cars, it was a whole lot more than the repo man.

Perhaps the press could help us turn the tide. We held a public funeral. Evelyn Waugh would have been proud. Our loved ones, the last electric cars in procession, at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. But the media’s wrap-up was that the car of tomorrow had become a car of the past. But what about today? It was here, now. From here, only one recourse was left—to make a film.

You couldn’t blame the carmakers for wanting their car back. They were beautiful. In fact, the leasing company went over every car with a fine tooth comb. Damage fees would apply. So when rumors surfaced that the cars were then being destroyed, it all went to another level.

GILLIS - AT THE DOOR

Over the shot the SOUND of the truck being started and the cars moving away. Gillis moves out into the courtyard and stands staring after the car. From the house comes Norma.

NORMA
Now what is it? Where's the fire?

GILLIS
I've lost my car.

NORMA
Oh...and I thought it was a matter of life and death.

GILLIS
It is to me. That's why I came to this house.
That's why I took this job...

http://www.movienet.com/whokilledtheelectriccar.html