Who Killed the Electric Car? on AllMovie

Filmmaker Chris Payne explores the many factors that played into the ultimate failure of the electric car to catch on with consumers, even as gas prices began to skyrocket, in a thoughtful meditation on the increasingly important role that renewable energy plays in modern society. Introduced as a means of providing an alternative to increasing oil consumption and reducing pollution in 1996, the electric car was an all-but-forgotten memory only a decade later -- but why? Through interviews with consumer advocacy experts, automotive industry experts, and oil industry heavyweights, Payne paints a thought-provoking picture of a culture whose aversion to change and reliance on dwindling resources may be rooted in the financial concerns of a wealthy few, and may also be leading consumers down a troubling path.