From 1996 through 2003, we were among the fortunate few to lease several
electric vehicles from General Motors. We loved the EV1. We were devastated
when we had to give them up to be crushed, and we weren’t alone. The story
was made into the movie
Who Killed the
Electric Car, which played in
selected theaters this summer and is now available on DVD.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, vehicle choice is the
biggest impact a consumer can make on the environment (home size is a close
second), so GM's decision was a double whammy: it discontinued the EV1 so it
could focus on large SUVs and the Hummer.
In the movie, consumers are part of the "suspects" in the killing of the electric car. Others include oil companies, automobile manufacturers, government agencies, and battery technology (spoiler alert: batteries were found "not guilty" in the movie!).
We were actually interviewed in our home for the movie, but that footage was left on the cutting room floor. We did make it into the credits, and Dave is clearly identifiable in several crowd scenes. I didn’t think I was in any, but he saw my reflection in a glass door as it was being opened(!). We had to replay it in slow motion several times to make sure, but there I am for a frame or two. I guess I still have 14.93 minutes of fame left to go!
Note: see our EV Chronicles for more information on our electric car experiences.