Topic: "Who killed the electric car?" Anyone got a copy of this movie?

[Terry in Australia]

I'd love to get a copy for free, but I'll buy it if I have to, it looks very interesting!

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html?detectflash=false

[seaweb11]

Option#1 Rent it?
Option  #2 Check library?


It's a good documentary

[Ecosse]

saw it listed on netflix (u.s.) but i know how it ends and didn't bother putting it in my queue.

goes something like this: novel idea for the greenies who think electric power is "zero emission" but is in fact a dead end pursuit, roll credits. if we ever obtained that utopian world where everything is electric powered (so much already is) can you imagine how expensive electricity will be? whenever we have a power outage here i think thank christ i don't have to charge up the civic! my sister lived off of a generator for a week and does anyone remember the hell hope lived through? yikes!

given that people have been tirelessly working on this alternative energy for use in transportation for, uh, longer than the gasoline engine and still haven't managed anything practical should be a sign. electric cars suffer poor efficiency in cold climates and they suffer in warm climates; sort of covers planet earth doesn't it? at this rate of progress by the time the egg-heads come up with a suitable battery we should have better and cheaper sources of power (already making faster progress towards practicality) better suited to cars, trucks, motorcycles.

i hope the title doesn't tip off a cliche characteristic of 'progressives'. they seem to love a good conspiracy theory. who killed the electric car? reality did.

now steam power... i'm with jay leno on that one!  hey opinions are like bellybuttons... and i'm showing everyone mine.



forgive me terry, a bit jeeked up on coffee today i guess.

[DammitDan]

If you know anything about bit torrents, it's available right now on isohunt.com

[gerhed]

The movie points out the fact that almost all of the leasees of the GM EV-1 loved their cars and wanted to renew their
leases and many more people wanted to lease the cars. For reasons that the movie never quite figured out, GM took all of the cars back and crushed 'em.  I drove one a few years back and it seemed like THE ANSWER.
I'd say GM decided they were a little too far ahead of the curve and decided to back out so as not to upset their parts suppliers (this engine has one moving part), the unions, and Big Oil.

[Bob Wessner]

Re: the EV-1, might find this interesting. As will everything in Wikipedia, if your only source, it should probably be taken with a grain of salt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1

[Terry in Australia]

forgive me terry, a bit jeeked up on coffee today i guess.

Ha ha, all forgiven mate, but I still like the idea of having an electric car, particularly for city driving. I don't know what your city is like, but when I regularly drive back to Melbourne from the country, on a sunny day from 20 miles away you can see a cloud of brown smog hanging over the city.

Now we all know that everything is made in China nowadays, and we don't have a manufacturing base in Oz anymore, so the majority of that smog is obviously coming from cars and trucks.

I'd like to see electric cars and trucks and buses etc in the cities, and as far as reliability goes, electric motors are just as reliable as gasoline powered engines, and why wouldn't they be? As Gerhead has stated, there are a heck of a lot less moving parts in an electric motor, than in an internal combustion engine.

I hear you when you talk about the "conspiracy theories" about why they killed off the electric car programme, but I think that you're over-simplifying it, I honestly do believe there is a genuine reluctance within government and big business to look at alternative energy sources for cars, when the oil companies are pumping so much money into their coffers, and have so much political influence.

If you know anything about bit torrents, it's available right now on isohunt.com

Thanks mate, I don't know much about it, but my son will, so I'll see if he can't download it for me! Cheers, Terry.

[BobbyR]

Electric motors are very reliable. The AC, yes AC motors we put in NYC Subway cars are usually rebuilt each six years which is about the 2.5M mile mark.

[Patrick]

I would love to have a practical electric car. You ever see the stats on asthma and emphysema in urban areas? Ever been to Mexico City? We are poisoning the air with the internal combustion engine. It would be nice to have an alternative.

If only we put as much money into developing a good fuel cell as we waste every year in the War on Drugs.....

[DollarBill]

Sorry don't have it but It is extremely enlightening...  After you see it you will want everyone to see it.

[BobbyR]

Terry, do not be so quick to discount the black helicopters on this one. In the 1970's documentation cam to light that showed GM paid off the whole NYC government to get rid of Trolley cars and replace them with buses.    

[BobbyR]

If you know anything about bit torrents, it's available right now on isohunt.com

IS this isohunt like limewire Dan?

[DammitDan]

I think Limewire is more of a distant cousin to Napster or Kazaa (where everything is contained within one program), whereas isohunt.com is an independent website where you download a torrent tracker and load it up in your own program such as Bitcomet or uTorrent.  Other websites I frequent include thepiratebay.org and mininova.

If you get a peer watcher (Peer Guardian 2 is what I use) it will block anti-p2p fishing IPs and keep you relatively safe from "the man".

[seaweb11]

Terry, do not be so quick to discount the black helicopters on this one. In the 1970's documentation cam to light that showed GM paid off the whole NYC government to get rid of Trolley cars and replace them with buses.    

The same stuff happened in Vancouver with the trolleys and rails being pulled years ago
My guess is that every metropolitan city with street cars in the day was pressured to pull them.

The Movie in question I say again is a good documentary.
and supports theories about who is making decisions regarding our transportation needs..........

[Ecosse]

Terry, do not be so quick to discount the black helicopters on this one. In the 1970's documentation cam to light that showed GM paid off the whole NYC government to get rid of Trolley cars and replace them with buses.    

my understanding was henry ford and (mr.) firestone, who were in fact good friends, bought out one city's (can't remember which) buses for the same reason. ford bus/ firestone tires.

[Ecosse]

Electric motors are very reliable. The AC, yes AC motors we put in NYC Subway cars are usually rebuilt each six years which is about the 2.5M mile mark.

electricity for public transportation makes more sense to me. i think the true answer will be applying the most suitable power plant to the given application.

[Ecosse]

The movie points out the fact that almost all of the leasees of the GM EV-1 loved their cars and wanted to renew their
leases and many more people wanted to lease the cars. For reasons that the movie never quite figured out, GM took all of the cars back and crushed 'em.  I drove one a few years back and it seemed like THE ANSWER.
I'd say GM decided they were a little too far ahead of the curve and decided to back out so as not to upset their parts suppliers (this engine has one moving part), the unions, and Big Oil.

i don't like the look of the gm ev-1 but gave, and still do, them credit for being so bold as to release it in the first place. that whole lease deal was a joke imo. it's possible gm yanked it because of the reasons you suggest but i recall they had reliability issues because, and i'm not a 100% on this, the problems with mid western heat and northern cold climates were killing the battery's range.

[Ecosse]

yes i know... as if we needed yet another example of scottish superiority.

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarselectrica.htm

[seaweb11]

But as you have said Ecosse.......you did not see the movie?

[Terry in Australia]

Those Bastards! They killed Kenny! Er, Electric trolley cars!

[Ecosse]

But as you have said Ecosse.......you did not see the movie?

naw, but i do like to think i'm somewhat 'current' on the subject.

actually i may add it to my movie list after all this discourse. a good friend of mine and i have semi regular "debates" on this subject. maybe i'll get him over to watch too.

[tortelvis]

Saw it on DVD in the local library!

[DammitDan]

Those damn hippy liberal librarians... 

[Terry in Australia]

Saw it on DVD in the local library!

Sooooo, maaaaate, do you own a burner?

[andy750]

All this talk of electric cars and great Scottish designers got me thinking...I knew I had seen one before...sure enough in Toyota`s car museum in Nagoya,Japan...an American electric car!



Way ahead of its time....

cheers
Andy