Who Killed the Electric Car?
The film “Who Killed the Electric Car” reviews the conception and the premature death of the electric car. The film depicts the electric car as environmentally friendly car, cost-effective in terms of fuel consumption, and salvation to many. However, the car acted as an obstruction to the profit maximization of others. The film is characterized by basics of murder mystery. Paine accuses the car manufacturers, the oil industry, consumer wariness, poor advertising campaigns, and the lack of political goodwill in promoting the car by the United States government. The film questions why we only drive cars that are run on oil, while there are other more effective alternatives such as the electric car. The movie tries to answer the question and to establish the causes, which can be traced to the collapse of the electric car.
General Motors was the first company to manufacture the first electric car, the EV1, which was available on a commercial basis. The car was run purely on electricity and could be recharged at home or at battery parks. Other companies followed suit; however, very few electric cars were manufactured. The cars were mainly manufactured in Arizona and California, yet very few cars were sold in these markets. Additionally, the car received limited advertisement. Eventual the car suffered destruction from the United States, and more specifically from the General Motors the company that invented the car.
The film explores the history of the electric car, its modern day developments, and commercialization. The film is primarily focused on the General Motors EV1, that was available for hire in Southern California. GM, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, and Chrysler produced almost 5,000 electric cars; however, the cars were later destroyed. Additionally, the film discusses the implications of the car on air pollution, dependency on oil, the politics of the Middle East region, and the issue of global warming. The film effectively explores the role of the car manufacturers, the oil industry, the United States government, and the government of California, the hydrogen automobiles, and the consumers in curtailing the development of the electric car technology. The author argues that the death of the electric car can be explained by the oil companies’ fear for losing their monopoly in the consumption of oil in the transportation industry. The car manufacturers feared the loss of their revenues in the end since electric cars required less maintenance and fewer tune-ups. However, GM offered another cause of the electric’s car death. It argued the car lacked sufficient consumer demand due to the low mileage per charge. However, it is conclusively evident from the film that the large corporations destroyed the electric car. Therefore, the author effectively portrays the ability of the large conglomerate companies to control the lives of the consumers.
The film is a great investment by the author. The author was successful in bringing to light an issue that is unknown to many Americans or has fast been forgotten. The electric car was a short-lived development; a majority of the United States population had not even realized that the car had been deliberately driven out of the market. The majority of the American population was ignorant of the car and the causes of the car till the production of the movie. Thus, I can conclusively argue that the author successfully raised the issue of the electric car, an issue that was not known to many Americans. Additionally, he effectively discusses the car and explains the most probable causes for the collapse of the car.
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