Who Killed the Electric Car?

GM EV

The 2006 movie documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? comes up a lot these days now that GM and Chrysler have until March2009  to justify the federal bail-out loan granted just before Christmas of 2008. The movie tells the story of the EV1, a prototype vehicle created by GM in the 1990s and distributed by lease-only to prove to the state of CA that it was impossible to meet their new emissions standards with cars people would actually buy.

The movie makes the case that GM recalled and destroyed all the EV1s when it became clear that Californians loved them and wanted to buy them. GM claims that the EV1s cost $80,000 a piece to build and were impractical to mass produce. Today only a few EV1s remain, all of them in museums. The Ev1 had a range of up to 75 miles on a single charge, and was a totally electric vehicle. Leasing costs ran approximately $299 per month.