When I was growing up, I remember hearing a story that there
actually existed a tire that would never wear out, only the tire companies had
bought the rights so as to preserve their profits. This movie documents a
true-life story something like that. The “killed” in the title is no hyperbole,
as most of the cars in question were literally crushed between 2003 and 2005.
You might be forgiven for not knowing that there had been any electric cars
marketed since the internal combustion engine became the technology of choice
in the 1920s. The movie mostly tells the story of the EV1, the General Motors
vehicle that was designed from the ground up and represented the first entry in
the potential new market. It was GM’s prototype that originally inspired
California to pass since-revoked legislation requiring 10% of vehicles sold in
the state to have zero emissions by 2003. Interviews with some people involved
in the GM project, politicians, automotive experts, and EV1 owners (most
notably Mel Gibson) form the basis of the film. What the movie lacks in
innovative techniques it makes up for in the story it tells and the way it’s
carefully structured as a mystery. The oil companies and recent presidential
administrations come in for predictable criticism, but the more interesting
question answered in the movie is why the automaker would create a car and then
do so little to sell it to the public. Whoever did this killing, I came away
from the movie mourning the loss.
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