There's a moment in the movie Revenge of the Electric Car when a Popular Mechanics magazine editor says, "The scariest part is, can they get the cost of the batteries down?" If you watch the movie, that's about as close as you'll get to a real technical debate on the future of electric cars.
Revenge of the Electric Car adeptly takes viewers inside the labs and minds of executives who support the development of EVs, but it doesn't pretend to know or care how those cars operate. The movie, a sequel to the 2006 film Who Killed the Electric Car?, assumes the technology is ready today and merely needs someone with the guts and foresight to push it forward.
Revenge of the Electric Car chronicles the efforts of electric car visionaries like Elon Musk
and their efforts to bring EVs to the market.
(Source: revengeoftheelectriccar.com)
Though the movie has an underlying smugness and a penchant for using Hollywood stars to make its point, Revenge is a worthwhile documentary. For an engineering audience, it's an educational ride through the roller-coaster lives of the executives who make the tough decisions about the future of the automobile.
The movie follows the stories of four electric car visionaries: GM's Bob Lutz, Tesla's Elon Musk, Nissan's Carlos Ghosn, and an electric car converter named Greg "Gadget" Abbott. Its director, Chris Paine, takes his cameras into board rooms, labs, and customer meetings, and he is unflinching in the way he displays the pain of being associated with an emerging technology.
At various points in the movie, Paine shows GM executives being grilled by Congress and chronicles Musk's meetings with unhappy customers complaining about broken promises. Through the course of the film, Musk begins to look visibly wrung out. He even admits to being on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Paine's insight into Musk's experience is almost disturbing to watch, and it forms the foundation of the film's most powerful sequences.
I've never seen the movie, but you've certainly peaked my interest, Chuck. Disappointing, though, that there isn't more balance in presenting the real challenges the EV industry faces, faithful or no faithful. Perhaps the collaborators could have used a little help from Michael Moore.
Beth, did you have to mention Michael Moore? Argh!!
Actually we have been here before. At the dawn of the automobile age there were electric cars. Don't forget that back then we did not have suburbs and long distance journeys were taken by train. All autos were used for short distance travel, so electrics worked. The internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles used a type of fuel that frankly "smelled". Once something closer to the current formulation of gasoline became available the electrics died out. The reason was the same. Limited range and time to charge. Until that is solved, the drive train doesn't matter.
I think that there will be a solution. It might well be fuel cells. It might be a whole new battery technology (different chemistry). It may be a hybrid of ultra capacitors and battery. Whatever it is, we don't have it now.
I had seen "Who Killed the Electric Car" and I was instantly struck by thin the movie was on technical details. The movie maker simply made the assumption that the car worked perfectly with no technological or economic hurdles, and that GM simply killed the car because somebody in a black helicopter made a call from Hangar 51. It could have happened that way, but it seemed to me that an issue with safety or GM's reputation was discovered. I'm certain that I'm not alone in the desire for a practical, plug-in commuter vehicle, and I'd really enjoy seeing a documentary on the struggle involved in developing a product of that type.
I viewed the entire movie last evening and was captivated both by the movie itself, but most especially by the "Rose Colored Glasses" perspective without any of the realities other than promoters having to convince both the market that this is ready to go (without question) and the investors to believe this position too!
Some of the myriad of issues driving the interest in a practical electric vehicle, which has many useful and appropriate applications, are dominated by storage of the electrical energy to obtain the mileage desired or demanded in today's living environment, the toxic waste hazard that is created at the site of a vehicle accident, the hazards to emergency rescue personnel (firefighters, paramedics and others that may assist at the scene of an accident), the availability of raw materials to manufacture the batteries, the ability to produce the batteries or other source of electrical power at any semblance of competitive costs, et al.
While the immediate cost of petroleum (including vehicle fuels) is influencing the interest and demand for this power source, if the petroleum costs are not determined by "politics" then the development will be driven by a more true market of need and efficiency and not one that is artificially dominated by the misguided environmental concerns of some in government power today.
I was sad for the problems encountered by "Gadget", however, his is the very best example of "intentions with value" in that he builds vehicles for those that want the application for their personal transportation needs and not to be forced upon a mass market that "may not want" nor are ready to "accept" the current technology - mostly due to problems associated with recharging the storage device (battery or ???) and the acquisition costs versus utility and practicality!
BTW - Who is going to pay for the charging while at work, the employer or ??? I suggest one concern is that if employers are required to provide and pay for these costs (or even "incentivized" through tax offsets), it will result in less employees as this is an additional and direct employee cost.
The intentions are wonderful but with mandates to make it work, are unwelcome!
I agree with you, Tekochip, the first movie was very thin on technical detail. Ironically, though, I think it got better reviews because because it was so unabashedly one-sided. This film, while still light on technical detail, shows that EV development isn't easy, which isn't as popular a position.
I too will be looking to find this one. I often wonder when someone tries to put together the story on something like this, how many times they forget to include important things...like the facts.
Due to their lack of ability to go long distance, or "there great ability to only travel short distances" I am wondering if this technology won't be used by the portion of the public that doesn't need to drive long distances. It's kind of like pick-up trucks or SUVs. Most people that have them really don't need them. Will rising gas prices drive them to buy something different? Will gas prices as some point drive a change in the market place?
Tesla Motors plans to roll out a “compelling, affordable electric car” that will sell for about half the price of its high-profile Model S by the end of 2016, company chairman Elon Musk said last week.
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