Director Chris Paine's highly anticipated follow up to "Who Killed the Electric Car?" screened at the AFI Silver Theatre in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland last Saturday night as part of the SilverDocs Documentary Festival.
Audiences were treated to a sneak preview of "Revenge of the Electric Car," which will be released nationwide this fall, and a Q&A with Paine following the screening. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive. As the credits rolled at the end of the movie there were two rounds of enthusiastic applause.
But will the film, and for that matter, electric cars, achieve mainstream success this time around?
Perhaps Gadget put it best. He was featured in the film and runs an independent electric car conversion company called Left Coast Electric in Los Angeles, California. His trials and tribulations were poignantly documented as he had to rebuild his business after a fire destroyed his workshop.
Gadget flew to D.C. from L.A. to participate in the Q&A and had the following sage words to those of us who are anxiously hoping the electric car succeeds this time around in replacing gas-powered cars.
"You can be a car enthusiast and love electric cars. There's nothing wrong with that," said Gadget.
Paine added later in the conversation that the real reason the oil companies want to kill the electric car is because once someone test drives one they never want to go back to an internal combustion engine ever again. Personally I can attest to that having test driven an electric vehicle recently. They are pure joy to drive.
In the film, Paine gains unprecedented access to former GM Chief Bob Lutz, who underwent a heartfelt conversion to electric cars after resisting them for years. The camera follows him around as he helps guide the development of the Chevy Volt -- GM's new electric car with a gas-powered generator to overcome range anxiety.
The film also follows Tesla CEO Elon Musk as he brings the Silicon Valley electric car maker back from the brink of failure following the 2008 economic collapse. Also profiled is Nissan Chief Carlos Ghosn and his ambitious plans to put everything on the line with the Nissan LEAF -- a zero emissions, 100% electric vehicle that gets 100 miles to a charge.
Will the electric car get its revenge? Will there be a million EVs zipping around America and a million charging stations to juice up at by 2015? The story is still being written. For the sake of humanity and the planet I hope it is a happy ending.
Here is the film trailer:
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