Revenge of the Electric Car
The conspiratorial 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” arrived inconveniently just as the industry was about to start making such autos again, hence the need for a cheerleading sequel, “Revenge of the Electric Car,” which arrives inconveniently just as the many problems with electric cars become widely publicized.
The film focuses on execs including Bob Lutz of GM, Carlos Ghosn of Nissan and Elon Musk of Tesla Motors, who do much striding purposefully around their shop floors proclaiming the electric gospel as narrator Tim Robbins intones absurdly overblown remarks like, “Every revolution needs its Napoleon . . . it was time to meet the Emperor.”
The film glosses over or even fails to mention such flaws as: Electric cars aren’t living up to range estimates, the carbon emissions that go into making their batteries are immense, they take all night to recharge and they’re so expensive that no one is buying them. Oh, and saying electric cars are “zero emission” is about as truthful as saying you don’t have to kill a cow when you buy a hamburger. Electric cars simply outsource the emissions to your coal-burning power plant.
“Revenge” is interesting as a meta-documentary, though. Corporate titans used to hide from filmmakers, with excellent reason.
Today, they strut and pose, inviting the world to witness their green speeches and penny-pinching (Lutz stages a lunchtime display of executive frugality that’s about as convincing as a middle-school production of “Les Miserables,” where big shots gum what look like $5 sandwiches).
This time the execs are lobbying us, yet the public grows increasingly furious as our tax dollars fund corporate welfare, bailouts and dumb ideas like the $41,000 golf cart that is the Chevy Volt.