Age of the Electric Car - The rising of Electric Cars

I’m Mary-Louise Parker. It’s a race within a revolution, four competitors battling to build a new electric car. There’s Mr. Detroit, a silicon Valley upstart. Mr. Foreign Ingenuity, and one eager Do-It-Yourselfer. All with something to prove – other companies will have to fill the void.

But somebody got to be the first one out there

Independent film maker Chris Paine has been down this track before. His previous film traced the rise and demise of GM’s first electric car.

“I think this definitely is act two of the electric car saga, where you don’t know if the hero’s alive or dead. You are not even sure who the hero is anymore”.

That was enough to convince. These notoriously secretive rivals to allow him 3 years of unprecedented access as they attempt to engineer an automobile. That will win with consumers.

Cars are synonymous with the American dream. But the politics of oil and environment are raising questions on how to fuel that dream. Revenge of the electric car, next.

Los Angeles, California.

When you look at the 405 or the 101 or the 110, you see how much convenience, how much mobility, how much economic activity those corridors support. It has built fortunes. It has saved lives. It has created communities. It’s made untold numbers of businesses possible.

Revenge of the electric car.

The electric car was back from the dead. The car companies had lied to us before. Should we believe them?

The only way to find out was to go behind enemy lines.

For three years, we got access. Let’s start with the biggest and baddest of them all.

General Motors: Over the last century, GM has churned out over 400 million gas-burning cars and trucks. In the 1990s, they introduced us to the joys of the 10-mile-per-gallon hummer and the escalade. But they also tried something truly revolutionary – the EV1 – the world’s first modern electric car.

It was fast, sleek, and powered only by electricity.

“First of all, it was the coolest car I ever had. It was taking care of the planet. It wasn’t gunking up the air. It was a fantastic ride. It was fast. I’d be zipping along, man – 70, 80 miles an hour, you know, just felling like a million bucks.”

But GM lost faith. They rounded up the cars as drivers protested. Then they crushed them and left them for dead. GM’s chief executive Rick Wagoner later called it his biggest mistake.

“When they took the EV1 away, I was definitely went into a depression. I felt really sad. Because in the long run, you look back at it. They made a deal, somebody made a deal to kill the electric car. I would have been a cool thing to have. And I still would have been driving it now.”

GM had a lot of haters and interestingly, people with very long memories. They would say they never would buy another GM again.

GM got a lot of bad publicity for the EV1. But here’s where we are now. There’s not only a business case for electric cars. There is a compelling business case.

There is an inevitability to this technology. It has come so far, so fast at a time.

When Gasoline and the Politics of Oil have become increasingly problematic.

Ray Wert – Editor Jalopnik: “I think that when gas prices were high, there was a degree of excitement around electric vehicles that we hadn’t seen before.”

Gavin Newsom - Lieurenant Governor, Califorina: “I’m sick and tired of worrying about gas prices every six months. I’m sick and tired of these failed wars in the middle east. I’m sick and tired of breathing. We have the technology. We have the know-how. We are innovative. Let’s act like it.”

Thomas Fridman – Columnist New York Times: “I do not believe this is a problem. That is gonna be resolved by regulators and bureaucrats. This is a problem that’s gonna be solved by engineers, innovators, and entrepreneurs.”

Sometimes change starts with the most unlikely people. This guy sure doesn’t look like a radical. Never one to turn down a bride. Meet Bob Lutz, Mr. Horsepower. Bob is vice chairman of General Motors and their media front man. One of the guys who was blamed for killing off the EV1.

“Bob Lutz is a giant of a man like, he is just, he’s larger than life. I means, the just …”

Bog’s been a car guy all his life. He’s been vice president of Ford and BMW and president of Chrysler. Ever heard of the 3 series? The Viper? The Ford Explorer? – That’s Bob.

“He is has a brilliant mid – He has a brilliant brain. When it comes to what an automotive enthusiast wants.” In 2003, 2004, you could not find a person who was more dismissive of electric vehicle technology than Bob Lutz. He thought that there was no business case for it. He thought the people who support it were lunatics. He did not and probably still doesn’t believe in global warming.

“Then, I think, something happened to Bob Lutz. I think he began to see some sort of light.”

Bob: “Well, I do consider myself an environmentalist, but within reason. In other words, I still realize the benefits of modern automotive transportation. On the other hand, the flood of emails that I got saying – You rotten S.O.B – You sold out to the oil companies – you’ve killed my grandchildren – I hope you rot in hell”.

“No one likes to be remembered as an evil or bad person, and certainly, he’s enough of an egomaniac that he would, that would sting.”

“We were discussing how Toyota was running away with the technological image and the environmental image, and so forth. And I said – well, why don’t we at least do an electric prototype? – and this was met with a singular absence of enthusiasm on anybody’s part. Because the company had lost so much money on EV1.”

So Bob’s electric car came to a screeching halt.

After years of skepticism, he's now convinced that "Electric Cars are back with a vengeance." But can GM overcome years of corporate doubt and public hostility and make a viable electric vehicle? This is the company that killed of the EV1, after all.

The film follows Carlos as he steers the LEAF through Nissan's corporate culture - and as he attempts to sell the car across the world.

If Nissan succeeds, they will corner the market in mass produced electric cars.

His goal is to mass produce the car - and drive it from LA to Palm Springs on a single charge.

Can he remake his life and his car? Soon, everyone involved realizes that it's not just the next generation of green cars that's on the line, it's the future of the automobile itself. That’s Elon Musk, the young dot-com billionaire and head of Tesla Motors

In Revenge of the Electric Car, Paine is back, taking his crew behind the closed doors of Nissan, General Motors, the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors, and an independent car converter named Greg "Gadget" Abbott to find the story of the global resurgence of electric cars.

See more: Tesla Model 3 vs Chevy Bolt - The Race of the electric car

With almost every major carmaker now jumping to produce new electric models, Revenge of the Electric Car follows the race to be the first, the best, and to win the hearts and minds of the public around the world.

We watch as these cars are developed from a concept into a working product, and see the car makers themselves struggle with the economy, the press, each other, and the car-buying public.

After years of skepticism, he's now convinced that "Electric cars are back with a vengeance." But can GM overcome years of corporate doubt and public hostility and make a viable electric vehicle? This is the company that killed off the EV1, after all.

Follow Carlos as he steers the Leaf through Nissan's corporate culture - and as he attempts to sell the car around the world.

Can he remake his life and his car? Soon, everyone involved realizes that it's not just the next generation of green cars that's on the line; it's the future of the automobile itself.

Revenge of the Electric Car chronicles the great shift in technology and automobile history that is taking shape as the cars hit the showrooms in 2011.

It’s launch day for the newest car company of American. Drawing inspiration from one of the 20th century’s most revolutionary inventors – The father of AC electricity, Nikola Tesla.

Evelyn Chiang: VP, Tesla Motors: “It is our first car, and of course it’s a car belonging to our first customer, and that would be also our chairmain – Elon Musk”.

Elon Musk, CEO Tesla Motors: “I’m ecstatic, this is fantastic awesome day.It feels like victory. This is the first production Roadster and a huge day for the company. Tesla ‘s gonna put thousands of these cars on the road. But beyond that, really what master is we are making a difference in the world and we have to build a lot of cars, until we see every car on the road being electric. We will not stop. This is really just the beginning of the beginning.”

Elon Musk is a true believer, and he put a tremendous amount of his personal prestige and personal wealth into that company.

Elon Musk: “So far, this (The Roadster electric car) is a very expensive car – call this the $50,000 cost. Just about the amount of money that I’ve invested in Tesla. So it’s kind of expensive.”

Detroit is dong a lousy job: making cars and making money. I mean, it’s a disaster. The idea that Silicon Valley could do a better job making cars, especially electric cars, is a very powerful one.

Elon: “We’ve got Model 2 in development. Which we are planning to unveil probably in the 2nd Quarter of this year. Which is the electric Sedan. ”

Elon ‘s a career troublemaker. He’s taken on the banks, the Space industry, and now the car companies. For me, Elon Musk has always been not really so much a car guy as an entrepreneur. He’s had lots of companies in the past. He sold Paypal to Ebay.

I just look at what he’s accomplished. And I’m like “Wow, I better start working harder. Because I’m not making those kind of accomplishments in my life.”

It’s just a giant kick in the balls to people that said we couldn’t do it and that commercial space doesn’t work.

Elon Musk is about as close as you’re gonna get in real life to Tony Stark – Iron man. And it shows you how one person can make a difference with a certain amount of smarts and inspiration to change the way people think.

Tesla: The car company of the Future.

Suddenly there was the Tesla announcement: 200 mile range, 0-60MPH in 4.2 seconds. 140 MPH top speed. 6,831 Laptop batteries. And I basically said – well, now, wait a minute. I’ve accepted everybody’s arguments of why we can’t do this. But here’s this small startup company in California and they think that they can get all of these figures.

Elon’s coup was just what Bob needed to drag GM back into the race. They weren’t going to be shown up by a bunch of Silicon Valley upstarts.

It was a powerful argument, so whether Tesla is ever hugely successful or not. I’ll always owe them a debt of gratitude for having kind of broken the ice.

Bub Lutz being a champion of electric cars is quite a switch from the Bob Lutz we used to know. He sold the board on the fact that this technology would leapfrog Toyota which had been GM’s nemesis.

The electric car was pushed all the way up the ladder by Lutz himself in a way that is very personal. A way that suggests he regard it is as his legacy at the company.

September 2008.

But the Volt wasn’t going to be a pure electric car. That was a step too far for GM. So the Company bet on an electric car with a backup gas engine. This would give it more range when the batteries ran out of power.

And then Bob persuaded the company to put the Volt front and center. At GM’s 100th Birthday party. “We’re in the executive garage in the basement of the Renaissance center and this is the most secure location that we could find in the building. You’ll notice we have plenty of security down here. And here is our baby. It’s now my great pleasure to present to you the production of the Chevrolet Volt.”

How’d it feel driving in an electric car?

“It felt great, Chris. I’m surprised you would ask.“

Is the electric car back from the dead?

“Well, you could argue was it ever dead? Because I think people were, even after we recalled the EV1s, There were still electric vehicles out there. But I think it’s back with a vengeance and I would say the electrification of the automobile is a foregone conlusion.”

As an analyst and a long-time journalist, I was still cynical. Because we’d seen a lot of concept cars that had gotten all the hoopla at the auto shows and then faded and died.

The Outsider

Some people aren’t going to wait around for corporations. Around the world, an underground movement is growing. These people are making their own electric cars right here and right now.

Greg “Gadget” Abbott – Electric car converter: “I’m gadget, been living and working in this warehouse for 16 years, and then for couple of years, I’ve been doing electric cars.

What I do is I take a car, and I change it from gas power to electric. It’s lot greener to take an existing car rather making a new one from scratch.

I’ve got a triumph spitfire, a GT6, and a ’67 Camaro. My latest project is a 356 Porsche speedster.

Charlotte Jackson – Designer: We got married. We were building our future together in this building, and we just finished our prototype. Lithium Ion, over 120 miles of range.

Finally we’ve got something real here. This is the future, you know? And it’s attainable and we can all have one.

I can’t wait to drive this around and show it off to people.

There are thousands of Gadgets out there. Together, they’re a force which could potentially rival the Big car companies.

But for the Big players. The Stakes tonight are even higher. This is the first time GM has faced the electric car community since the EV1 disaster.

“This is the Hello for us. Hopefully we’re gonna use this to win back and recapture the hearts and minds of the American car buying public. We’ve got to.”

I’m not Darth Vader. I’m not a bad guy. I’m not a liar. I’m a father, I’m a dad. I’m a husband that really cares about doing the right thing. And the only way to get people to believe is to talk like that, right?

And now they got Tesla biting at their heels too.

“Tesla is definitely the star of the show. You look at the two cars, there’s not really any competition.”

Shad Balch – GM Volt Team: “The Tesla has a very high price point. I know that there are some sort of battery issues going on with the Tesla, so it’s different. It’s in its own little category. The Chevy Volt is gonna be something that’s much more affordable compared to the Tesla for every day consumers to purchase”.

Age of the Electric Car - The rising of Electric Cars
Age of the Electric Car - The rising of Electric Cars

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