Written by: Susan Granger
www.susangranger.com

Like a companion piece to "An Inconvenient Truth," Chris Paine's timely documentary delves into why General Motors not only recalled but destroyed its all-electric car, the EV1. Both politics and economics played a factor.

Back in 1988, after GM's one-of-a-kind solar-powered electric "Sunracer" won the World Solar Challenge Race in Australia, GM's CEO Roger Smith funded a prototype of a practical consumer-oriented electric car. Two years later, in 1990, the cool, fast, sexy EV1 was introduced at the Los Angeles Auto Show and leased to enthusiastic celebrities, including Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson and Alexandra Paul. That same year, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which ignited reprisals within the American Automobile Manufacturing Association. So by 2003, GM reclaimed all its electric cars, the CARB modified its ZEV mandate and President George W. Bush called for research and development of the hydrogen fuel cell. Yet in 2006, Toyota and GM ended joint research on hydrogen-powered fuel cells because they could not agree on sharing intellectual property rights.

According to writer/director Chris Paine, those who had the opportunity to drive the now-defunct EV1, many of whom are interviewed, loved it, yet GM, in collusion with oil companies and crooked politicians, killed it.

Although Paine's liberal bias is obvious, the fact remains that while American car companies were unwilling to manufacture a fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly car, Japanese automakers forged ahead, coming up with hybrids, combining an internal-combustion engine with an electric motor and high-capacity battery.

Narrated by Martin Sheen and despite a plethora of talking-head segments, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is a skeptical 7. While the conspiracy theory is controversial, something must be done about America's oil addiction.