In 2006, the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? became the must-see movie for clean energy fans, car freaks, and Teva-wearing conspiracy theorists. Today it’s almost hard to imagine a world not obsessed with the Nissan Leaf. Filmmaker Chris Paine’s sequel, Revenge of the Electric Car, traces how EVs sproinged back into public consciousness, becoming the object of rabid desire and the trigger for an automaker showdown.
Watch the trailer, especially if you like chanting monks:
Social media buzz builds anticipation: Filmmakers wouldn’t release the trailer until the film had 10,000 Facebook fans, which happened Friday, reports GOOD. Sites like Jalopnik, Plug-In Cars, Green Optimistic, and even Grist appealed to readers to “like” the page and speed up the trailer’s release.
Sex appeal and electric cars: Paine calls the Tesla Roadster (which he drives) “a very sexy EV,” naming it one of the factors in the EV revival. Then again, “The electric car on a subliminal level is kind of threatening, because it doesn’t necessarily have all those classic 20th-century male values attached to it,” Paine told Grist last month.
Google’s plug-in problems: GM vet and Revenge consultant Chelsea Sexton tells the San Francisco Gate that, despite the $10 million Google plunked down for a fleet of plug-ins, the company is “still trying to figure out if and where they fit into this whole [EV] problem, because, lo and behold, it’s actually kind of complicated.” Google admits challenges — its plug-ins “use a hybrid system that was not designed for plug-in use,” and its employees sometimes forget to charge the cars and don’t know how to maximize mileage.
