Revenge of the Electric Car opening this weekend
The documentary chronicles four key men developing, building, and promoting electric vehicles as a possibility on our roadways. These men are Bob Lutz, Elon Musk, Carlos Ghosn, and Greg “Gadget” Abbott. Each has a different story, purpose, and journey through how they are contributing to making EV's a reality on our roads.
Bob Lutz, known as General Motor's (GM) car czar and GM's Vice Chairman, pushed for the development of the Chevy Volt. Lutz contributed in ending GM”s EV1 program, which would have put many electric cars on the roads in the 90's. The Chevy Volt is GM's attempt to show the public they are serious about building these cars. However, the much talked about Chevy Volt is not quite an electric car. It has an electric motor that can take you around 40 miles on a single charge, but also has a gasoline powered engine. Thus the Volt enables you to use electric power on short trips, but if needed you can take long trips using the gas engine.
Elon Musk is quite an eclectic man. The enigmatic South African co-founded PayPal, an online payment system, and SpaceX, a private company dedicated to space exploration. Neither of these are why he is in the documentary. He is best known for co-founding Tesla Motors, the forward-thinking electric car company. Tesla has built over 1,800 Tesla Roadsters which can accelerate from 0-60mph in under 4 seconds, faster than many supercars. The documentary follows him and the trials and tribulations of trying to get a new car company off the ground. Not an easy task!
Carlos Ghosn, is CEO and President of Renault and Nissan. Ghosn is best credited for turning around Nissan when it had staggering debt ($20 billion dollars). He managed to turn around the company in only a year, and its profit was a surprising $2.7 billion. The next feat that Ghosn wants to achieve is to corner the the electric car market. With a lot of competition and a lot of people still skeptical about electric cars, it will not be easy. However, with the Nissan Leaf an all-electric vehicle that has created quite a stir, he might pull it off. Nissan and Ghosn have the potential to change an industry.
Greg “Gadget” Abbott is a hands-on guy. He builds his own electric cars and does not wait for big car companies to give him what he wants to drive. He is determined to start a Do-It-Yourself electric car revolution. He eventually wants to drive from LA to Palm Springs on single charge. His dream is put on hold due to a catastrophe at his shop. If he can remake his car and keep doing what he is doing, he still might change the world with his DIY electric car vision.
Dan Neil, the Pulitizer Prize winning automotive journalist, is the the documentary to give his expert opinion and advice. Tim Robbins, the activist and actor, is narrates the movie. Chris Paine directed and wrote the documentary, as well as “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
“Revenge of the Electric Car” will be opening in select theaters in the coming months, and will have special screenings. On the website, you can request a screening in your city. - http://www.revengeoftheelectriccar.com/
Please contact Adam Yamada-Hanff at – adamsautoadvice@gmail.com – for comments, questions, or topics. You can also follow him on Twitter @AdamsAutoAdvice