Who Killed the
Electric Car is a movie that investigates the production and destruction of
the battery electric vehicle in the US, in particular the General
Motors EV1 during the 1990s. The film explores the roles of automobile
manufacturers, the oil industry, the US government, the Californian
government, batteries, hydrogen vehicles, and consumers in
restricting the development of this technology.
From watching this documentary styled
movie i quickly learnt that electric cars have actually been around for over a
100 years. They were once considered a better substitute to traditional
engines, and were more popular as well. Most major oil companies were strongly
against the electric vehicle; this meant that there would be less demand for
oil and petroleum with the increase in electric cars. Other technologies such
as utilising Hydrogen for powering engines were researched and developed. $1.2
Billion dollars was provided by the Bush administration towards the manufacture
of Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
While watching the film, i discovered
that while the EV1 was gaining popularity, on April 24, 2009, California killed
its electric car mandate. This then led to all EV1’s sold in California being
taken back from their owners and then eventually crushed. I think other
designers should see this eye opening documentary about a design that would
have made a huge impact today if the project was successful. Designers need to
know the history of the products they may be designing in order to fully
understand the design stages a certain product or company has been through.
A message that could easily be learnt
would be to understand how easily major production companies and governments
can kill off an idea. In the long run the idea would have worked although other
major companies would have suffered as a result. Another message is that a
product as big as the EV needs to have an early demand for it to be successful,
it should be targeted for the majority of the population and people need to be well-informed
as to how it can replace their traditional engines. The final message would be
that in order to help the global environmental issue, technology can and needs
to be able to provide solutions, but the most important factor is that the
government corporations need to be behind it also.
