Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Video Reflection: Who killed the electric car



'Who Killed the Electric Car' is a documentary which explores the complex set of events around the development and demise of the modern electric car. "Who killed the electric car" portrays a great example of how money and greed seem to rule the way we live our lives. The first electric cars were built in the early 20th century, but became economically unviable compared to machines with internal combustion engines. However later in the century, they made a brief re-appearance as new technologies developed. 

The documentary made it obviously clear that governments, oil companies and large car manufacturers did not want the electric car to take off as they believed that it would not be a profitable option, at least in the short term. Legislations were made and fought in regards to the electric car, but ultimately it was the car manufacturers and oil companies that won, due to their sheer size and increased influence they had in certain government administrations. Car companies used poor technology as a scapegoat to help deter consumers from purchasing electric cars over their other models, arguing that using coal for electric vehicle power would produce worse emissions than using petroleum. General Motors even went so far as to install what they knew were inferior parts into the cars, so that they had a bad stigma attached to them.

Howewver the documentary isnt all doom and gloom, as towards the end it does portray a world in which the electric car is becoming more prominent. Higher oil prices, further entanglements in the Middle East and the increasing threat of global warming are increasing the pressure to reduce dependence on crude oil, and thus look into alternative methods such as electric cars. Many companies are adapting to change to build new car and energy alternatives. Smaller car companies are producing specialist vehicles such as the Tesla and others are doing their own conversions of gas cars to electric or hybrids to plug-in hybrids.

Overall my three take-home messages are:


  • Money and oil are such powerful commodities that their rarity and existence has enormous influence into the political decisions made in the world, which is not always a good thing
  •  People are becoming more environmentally conscious in the 20th and 21st centuries, as they can feel and see the effects of global warming and other natural phenomenon's
  •  The electric car may have been 'killed off' in the past, but it is now re-emerging, bigger and better than ever with large companies now more willing to put electric cars into production at a larger scale


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