# Chris Paine of Who Killed the Electric Car? on his new film, his personal fleet, and why he thinks EVs are ready to rise from the dead.

- Link: https://greenlivingguy.com/2011/05/chris-paine-of-who-killed-the-electric-car-on-his-new-film-his-personal-fleet-and-why-he-thinks-evs-are-ready-to-rise-from-the-dead/
- Published: 2011-05-03T05:09:48-04:00
- Author: greenlivingguy

[Source: Mother Jones](https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2011/05/who-killed-electric-car-chris-paine/)

Back in 2006, the documentary _Who Killed the Electric Car?_ revealed how various
industry players—including petroleum companies and car manufacturers themselves—
conspired to sabotage the launch of the first [electric vehicles](https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2010/11/electric-car-myths/).
But shortly after the film was released, its director, Chris Paine, began to hear
rumblings of an electric car comeback. “I started an email correspondence with GM,”
recalls Paine. “I said, ‘we thought you had a great car and we were upset that you
killed it. But if you’re going to do it right, I’m going to tell the story, since
it’s not often that companies change their minds on big decisions like that.'” Sure
enough, a few years later the next wave of electric cars have hit the market—and
Paine’s sequel, _Revenge of the Electric Car_, tells the story of what happened.
I spoke to Paine shortly after his film’s Earth Day premiere.

**_Mother Jones_:** What’s changed since _Who Killed the Electric Car?_

**Chris Paine:** There was a lot of blowback after the first programs were killed.
Consumers were saying, ‘If we have to have cars, why are only bad cars available?
Why do we have to rely on the Middle East?’ So the right and the left came around—
afor security reasons and environmental reasons—and then the car industry itself,
which realized no one was buying cars when gas hit $4 a gallon in 2008. And here
we are in 2011, with gas prices going nowhere but up, and there is a serious international
consensus that you have to have higher miles-per-gallon cars.

**MJ:** Are [oil companies](https://greenlivingguy.com/2018/11/4-per-gallon-gas-energy-innovation-how-about-5-per-gallon/)
still trying to interfere with electric cars?

**CP:** I’m sure the gasoline companies would still love to keep their 100 percent
monopoly on transportation fuel. But what’s changed since then is the fact that 
almost all the refineries in the US are at 100 percent production right now. They
can’t even keep up with demands for gasoline. So the last thing they want is to 
be caught driving up prices while at the same time they are publicly coming down,
like they did last time on electric cars. So I think they’re staying out of the 
way this time. I don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes, but they’re not 
running ads against electric cars or claiming they’re unsafe like they did last 
time.

**MJ:** Can electric cars save Detroit?

**CP:** I think electric cars can help save Detroit. They reflect good decision-
making, and there has been bad decision making in the auto industry for so long,
in my view. In the course of filming _Revenge of the Electric Car_ I became a little
more sympathetic to the car industry in terms the way it impacts the global economy.
Not just in Detroit in the obvious ways, but the workers in this industry all around
the world. Also, lots of things that progressives like, like the show _The West 
Wing_, were largely supported by car advertising. This stuff went away when Detroit
started to go under.

[For the rest of the interview with Chris, please visit the Mother Jones Website](https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2011/05/who-killed-electric-car-chris-paine/)

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 greenlivingguy

 The Green Living Guy, Seth Leitman is an independent power producer, a green living
expert, and Editor of the McGraw-Hill, TAB Green Guru Guides. Seth is also an Author,
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Green Living Guy writes about green living, green lighting, the green guru guides
and more. Seth's books range from: # Build Your Own Electric Vehicle by Bob Brant
and Seth Leitman (2nd and 3rd editions) # Build Your Own Plug-in Hybrid Electric
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