What is Digg?197 Comments
- heyitsme23, on 10/12/2007, -3/+44you didnt watch it long enough then. At one point in the movie it talks about the battery technology, and that the company with the new technology was bought out by exxon.
- shreveyboy, on 10/12/2007, -6/+43you *****!
- mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -2/+36I watched this about a month ago at an actual theater.. it's a great documentary that will probably piss you off. (as if you could get any more angry about our government these days)
- canewediggit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+34really liked it. the old iraq b/w footage was creepy. and it's great to see how gm's big vehicle strategy wound up biting them in the ass resulting in near bankruptcy and a plummet of their stock price while toyota has had a great run. i think my favorite line was the old battery guy at the end (paraphrasing)... "if you want start a revolution, don't pick up a gun. get to work and innovate"
- apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -3/+35"There is significant power lost when going through power lines from the plant to the outlet powering the electric car."
Think about this. You are telling us that sending fuel by TRUCK is more efficient than sending it by wire.
The electric grid is 95% efficient, by the way.
"The electricity powering the car is most likely produced by fossil fuels."
So what. EVs are many times more efficient than gas vehicles. This means less pollution regardless of what you burn.
"Huge batteries are expensive, contain dangerous chemicals that keep emergency personal away if you're in an accident and the battery leaks."
Yeah, gasoline is so much safer.
"...you'd know that dependence on foreign oil is NOT necessarily a bad thing. "
Now we know who you work for. - canewediggit, on 10/12/2007, -4/+35had to pause it to comment. about 15 min or so in, you get a screen crawler w/ the mpaa phone numbers and warnings re- copying and distributing the film. made me laugh, thought i'd share.
- stephenwq, on 10/12/2007, -1/+32This would have to be the longest highest quality video i've ever seen on google video.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+27If you would have watched it long enough, you would've noticed two key factors: the batteries were changed (think second revision), and those who used the EV-1 didn't MIND the battery life. They tailored their life around it, so much that they wanted to keep the EV-1 after their leases were up. This alone makes it seem as though battery life wasn't the main problem.
- onelikeseabass, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20actually, yes, it will
many people that would not otherwise become informed by this film now will be thanks to torrents and illegal downloads
one issue pressed in this film was the *lack* of public awareness - zephc, on 10/12/2007, -3/+21You can't kill an idea. The electric car wasn't killed, it was just stalled. Like a Ford.
- AmishGeek, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Saw it at the theater. Good movie. Dugg.
- bellisland, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Its really an amazing video. I saw when it first came out and was amazed Now i am committedd to get an an electric car and currently working on a conversion. Here is a really cool electric production car www.teslamotors.com, coming out next year but its 100,000 DOLLARS!!!!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14@ImTheDarkCyde
Oh, ***** you. Somebody torrent this before it gets taken down.
Edit: Guess I spoke too soon. Just saw the links down at the bottom. Gotta love this, with the MPAA warnings scrolling across the screen. Oh, the irony... - dbxz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12someone get a torrent up before the oil companies force them to take it down...
there is some serious ***** wrong with this countries government. - Lane5slacker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Awesome. I wanted to see this movie when I first heard of it but the theaters around my town are not to big on those "intellectual" type films. They all want whatever horrible Uwe Boll movie that is out this week.
- egrumling, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13 It is well established the Stonecutters are to blame...
All: Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!
Karl: Who leaves Atlantis off the maps?
Lenny: Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
Alien: We do! We do!
All: Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Gutenberg a star?
We do! We do!
Skinner: Who robs cavefish of their sight?
Homer: Who rigs every Oscar night?
All: We do! We do! - xtr3m, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12A real eye opener. The movie really shows how much the automobile and oil industries really care about us despite all their cool, slow motion ads.
- PRlME, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13humm so we buy gas that gives the terrorests money to make bombs and we kill our selfs with cO2 at the same time while creating global warming that brakes off peaces of ice with innocent polor bears stuck on them and the eletric car can still beat my 300zx at a stop light....dam that sux
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11http://www.mininova.org/tor/431725
- apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9No way GM spent a million per car, or a billion (as they've been quoted saying) on EV1 development. Think about it. That would be monumentally stupid. Especially considering the fact that they EXPECTED the program to fail from day 1, as they said so in newspaper interviews from the time the car was launched.
There was quite a bit of taxpayer money involved, in the form of grants for EV research. This is where the money came from they spent. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10@heyitsme
Actually, it was Texaco. - friend18, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12That's not ironic at all.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10"You'd think if "killing the electric car" was just some american oil company conspiracy, the more politically liberal, environmentally concerned countries like Switzerland would be absolutely teeming with the things. But they're not."
Yes, because their cities were designed with efficiency in mind, unlike in America where the auto and oil companies did all they could to promote urban sprawl. You don't have to go 15 miles across town to get groceries or see a doctor or whatever. For the most part, you can walk where ever you have to go.
And when things are beyond walking distance, they have this magical little thing called mass transit. With mass transit, people travel together in these things called buses, trains, and boats, instead of traveling all by themselves in their indivdual cars. As a result, traffic congestion is reduced, pollution is reduced, and often people can go without cars.
"Oh my god, there are people in the world that don't need cars? *****...they must be commies." Actually, you can find this in our very own country. Look no further than New York City: "Data from the 2000 U.S. Census reveals that New York is the only locality in the United States where more than half of all households do not own a car (the figure is even higher in Manhattan, over 75 percent). While nearly 90 percent of Americans drive to their jobs, mass transit is the primary form of travel for New Yorkers. As a result of New York's uniquely high rate of public transit use it is one of the most energy efficient cities in the country. Gas consumption in New York, for example, is at the rate the national average was in the 1920s."
It's amazing what you can do when you get your ***** together. Of course, New York doesn't hold a candle to most European countries, and especially Japan. Just take a look at the Shinkansen. My god, those things are sleek, sexy, fast, clean, and ALWAYS on time. "In 2003, JR Central reported that the Shinkansen's average arrival time was within 0.1 minutes or 6 seconds of the scheduled time." (Wikipedia) Compare that to Amtrak, which in 2005 was on time only 70% of the time (which, having taken Amtrak back and forth from college in Albany to New York City numerous times, I have an extremely hard time believing...left at least 30 minutes late, arrived at least an hour late EVERY TIME).
Okay, now I'm starting to get way off on a tangent. My point is, it's perfectly plausible that the oil companies did kill the electric car. They lose out to the utilities, much like they did before they killed mass transit (with the help of the auto companies) back in the '50s.
Sources:
http://www.narprail.org/cms/index.php/resources/more/amtrak_fact_check/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkansen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_transit_in_New_York_City - Johnny1337h4x0r, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Here's the REAL link to the torrent for the documentary (sorry, didn't have enough time to edit last one)
http://isohunt.com/download/13947573/who+killed+the+electric+car - mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8It opened in a small theater in my area a while ago.. and I was pretty much the only one watching it sadly enough. People just want entertainment.
- Lososaurus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8half hour in, paused for Kings game, informative and surprisingly enjoyable thus far. I think they spent a good deal of time on it's presentation, not too soft, not too in-your-face.
- apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8There are cheaper ways to get electric cars. See:
http://www.squidoo.com/cheap-electric-car/ - apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Even lead-acid batteries are good for at least 20,000 miles. My (very old) EV has an $800 battery pack - that works out to 4 cents per mile. Newer battery tech is much better than this. People refuse to believe me when I tell them I drive an EV to save money. The electricity itself works out to about 1 cent per mile.
And no, EVs do not pollute anywhere near what gas cars do, even when coal is burned at the plant. - danz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10the movie was good and made some good points but as always with these types of videos its a one sided story. I liked the fact when they pointed to multiple people include consumers as responsible for the death. Overall it was good and well worth my time :)
canewediggit : yepp the end quote by the old battery guy is the best. :) - h3268, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7JohnChapin,
Please see this site: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/co2.shtml. A fast google search of "gallon gas 19 pounds carbon dioxide" will show you this link. A gallon of gas weights about 6 pounds, but most of that weight is carbon. When gas is combusted, i.e., reacted or "burned" with oxygen, it creates carbon dioxide. So most of that 19 pounds comes from oxygen in the air. IMHO, you should do some research before claiming something is wrong. - dafrank112, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Makes you realize how much power these oil companies have over the world.... its a damn shame
- mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9The movie references a specific recent model of electric car that was literally killed.
- JAshbaugh, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10download the movie to your computer from google.
http://javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php - Peepsalot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7$100,000 is expensive, but you're talking about a car whose performance is on par with a $300,000 Lamborghini Murcielago, or a $450,000 Porsche Carrera GT.
If I ever have the money to buy a car that expensive, I know where my money is going. I always liked Lotus anyways(they provide the chassis for teslamotors) - mechanisma22, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I would buy this DVD. I really am sad that there isn't a production electric car anymore. As soon as I get the money I'm building or converting one. Lithium Ion technology should be able to resurrect electric cars in providing them with more range. I don't see any other disadvantage to electric cars besides the range and cost but if Li-ion manufacturing became more mass produced for these applications I think the electric car problems could be solved.
- Gunegune, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Awesome! Thanks for the link. I hope the electric car makes a come back.
- nogami, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Well, GM has ensured that for the rest of my life, I will never buy any of their products, nor from any of the companies they own.
Here's hoping that Toyota buys GM, and sends them off to the crusher...
N. - TheWorm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Don't really want to watch an hour and a half long movie right now but I hope this stays up for a little while so I can catch it another time. It looks like an important movie.
- apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Well, this is essentially what Tesla Motors is doing ( http://www.teslamotors.com ) The Tesla is in many ways the stepchild of the EV1. The drivetrain technology is similar.
Starting a car company is no small endeavor. Give them a few years. - dimplemonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6This was definitely very palatable no matter what your political persuasion may be leaning towards. The comment made by the EV1 battery creator was so poignant
- chemicalrxn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7At about 53 min into the film, Edward H. Murphy, Ph.D. quote "The petroleum industry did not kill the electric car...What killed the electric car was antiquated technology."
If electric appliances are so out of date, why are we not using oil lamps to read the paper in the early morning? I turn on my PC and go to digg. Does this make me old-fashioned? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@yiandes
No, Exxon doesn't own Texaco. Exxon owns Mobil. Chevron owns Texaco. - onelikeseabass, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@jamessavik
it would be utterly shocking if someone had already seen the movie before it was posted here... that never ever happens, right? - MrZop, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Much Better Than Google Video. Thanks.
- killa62, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Direct link to avi download, (so you can stream it)
I hope this works, if it doesn't, digg me down
http://tinyurl.com/ychw9p - 0zzy, on 10/12/2007, -12/+17I like how it was uploaded by "truth911.net" - sigh.
- apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"Your electric car does not save you 100's of dollars a month, unless you are traveling salesman or a trucker."
I'll show you exactly how an EV saves me money. An average driver in the USA puts about 15,000 miles on his car every year. That's 1250 miles/month. Assuming a 20mpg car, and with gas at $3.20 (like it was this summer), that's 62.5 gallons, and $200 out of my pocket.
What does electricity for an EV cost? Here in Michigan I get an "EV rate" from my utility of 2 - 3 cents/kwh (Rate D1.7 in this document: http://my.dteenergy.com/myAccount/pdfs/rates.pdf )
In a vehicle that gets about 4 miles per kwh, that's 312.5 kwh, which costs $6.25. Yep, SIX DOLLARS.
So my fuel savings are $193.75 per month.
So what about battery replacement costs? Well, that amortizes around 2-5 cents per mile, so let's say around $500 per year. But there are no other drivetrain maintenance costs on an EV - no filters, fluids, tune-ups, nothing. So this is the replacement for the maintenance costs I would be incurring with a typical ICE car. - SirChaos, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6It's sad that probably in my lifetime and in my children's lifetime, we will never see what some truly good could do for our society, such as the EV1.
- irieKEN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Edit: Someone beat me to mentioning Tesla Motors.
What are the chances that they'll be owned by BP in 2 years? - apeweek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5So long road trips are difficult or impossible. No car can be everything to everyone. I don't hear people telling me that motorcycles or motor homes shouldn't exist, just because they aren't good for all the purposes people use cars for.
As for quick refills -- here's a Mitsubishsi EV slated to be introduced soon:
http://aftermarket.autoblog.com/2006/10/12/mitsubishi-looks-ahead-with-an-electric-i/
It can charge (to 80%) in 20 minutes. -
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