Free time :: Two Interesting Movies About Electric Car

"How does it go without gas and air? How does it go without sparks and explosions? How does it go without gears or transmissions? How does it go, you ask yourself?“

That way sounds the first advertising ever made to an electric car, as it is presented in a documentary movie (1). And we must be honest and admit that there is something completely different of what comes into our mind when we think at automobiles. Today.

After more than a century of development, in the last couple of decades more and more heavy names from automobile industry talk about alternatives to oil derived fuel engine. Yet, until 2004 and despite the progresses made at various variants, no important player on the market had dared to promote in mass production an automobile having zero noxious emission. It was just small steps being made, first in defining, later in decreasing harmful emmisions (*). Slowly, modern society got used to the idea that automobile is a necessary bad thing and, despite the fact that it pollutes, we cannot live without it anymore.

Among all available technologies at this very moment, electric automobile offers the most advanced non-polluting solution (**) which can be implemented in mass production. Although it has some disadvantages in comparison with classical car, it can be a viable transportation solution for about 95% (***) of the quotidian use cases.

Searching last weekend on internet new information about electric cars, I found two interesting movies on Youtube. I recommend it to anybody who wants to go beyond the simple and comfortable action of adding text ”Think before printing“ to his/her email signature.

(*) EURO, LEV - google-search after car emission standards US, car emission standards Europe (I recommend links toward dieselnet.com and wikipedia.org)

(**) strictly speaking about harmful particles dispersed directly and making abstraction of indirect emission – which appears on electrical energy production (needed to recharge batteries), or in the process of car production, for example.

(***) google-search after 95 of all trips could be made in electric cars (I recommend the link toward greencarreports.com)

Sony Pictures made a movie relating about a successful test General Motors made in 2004. That time GM pursued a double goal: to check its technical capacity in engineering an electric automobile from scratch and the willing of people to adopt it. Surprisingly, they cut the experiment out in an unexplainable way and (apparently) didn't followed to transform their experience in a successful business.

In the movie appears, among other American personalities - more or less interesting for the rest of the world - Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson as electric vehicle ambassadors.

Until the experiment made by GM in 2004, no important player from the market had the guts to promote a 100% electric automobile. GM proved to the public that, in the battle against pollution caused by vehicles, a functional solution exists, viable and perfectible, thus demonstrating, in a practical manner, we have an alternative to Otto/Diesel engines.

Despite the fact that the chosen sample of users said a loud ”Yes“ to the challenge of using an electric automobile, the hesitation (****) of launching into production a revolutionary model keep the manufacturers away in a deep expectance, thus maintaining the status-quo of the actual solution.

(****) The hesitation is most probably due to the fear of a presumptive commercial failure. However, the initial high price argument is fairly disputable because, once the vicious circle is broken, the mass production drives it quickly downward (the test dixit).

Chris Paine, the Director of the movie, felt that manufacturer’s hesitation is more subjective and less objective. He wanted to transmit us a message we all have to reflect on. In the first part of the movie, he presented us the EV1 concept and some of the key contributors to the birth of the american electric vehicle. In the end, he realized a TOP 5 of those (organizations) who have had the greatest contribution to the falling of EV1 program in a deep anonymity shortly after, so they can be referred as those who killed the electric car.

I challenge you to spend a pleasant time next weekend, by watching the movie on Youtube.

This is a very recent National Geographic documentary, broadcasted en premiere 3 months ago, about the brand-new Model S car made by Tesla Motors. Luckily, a good samaritan put it on Youtube a couple of weeks later (fear not, audio track is in english:-)

As some of you probably knows, Tesla Motors came on the spotlight in 2008 with Tesla Roadster, the first mass-produced sport electric car. Sold at an average price of 100 KUSD, TM’s first step was a success: they convinced almost 2500 clients to buy it so far, despite the fact that it is an "all electric" automobile.

More recently, in june 2012, a second model has been launched into production. Model S is a brand-new Sedan, having the average price of 50 KUSD. Apparently, Tesla copied BMW's solution of putting propulsion on rear wheels, thus keeping the technical complication at minimum (and, most probably, aiming BMW's green clients as well).

Megafactories: Tesla Model S relates about Tesla Motors's new factory (in fact, it is an older closed factory, rehabilitated) where new Model S is built.

The movie starts by revealing some of the visions of Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors. One of his many is about an environmentally friendly car. You will have presented the key points which define Model S: a superior class (comfortable inside, shiny outside), a reasonable autonomy (480 Km claimed) and the state-of-the-art technology used (aluminum body). And, of course, suggestive 3D animation will show you the adopted solution for such an electric car.

But Tesla Motors wants to be more than just another car producer. Because Model S is an innovative product, TM wanted to make a difference in choosing optimized methods for production flux organization. And because the product is green, that orientation had to be reflected in some way. I won’t tell you more - see it for yourself.

In the end you will find out what connection between the billionaire Elon Musk and Paypal exists.

Well done, in NG style, I enjoyed watching the movie. I hope you'll like it as well.

If the information found above seemd interesting for you, I am waiting you to come back on other subjects