Favorite Documentary?

[Variety of Cells]

Who Killed the Electric Car? is the most surprising documentary I've seen.  Mainly because I never knew there was such a thing as an electric car.  And it worked great, with no emissions.  It was fast, it was quiet, and it's a lot cheaper than paying for gas.  The only down side is that it couldn't go quite as far on one charge as you can on one tank of gas......

i don't want to start another huge debate,but i don't like most of these documentaries because many have such an extreme POV that they are hopelessly biased (read as "anything michael moore has done..or an inconvenient truth"). 
my guess is they made it sound like a big conspiracy to keep the technology out of the hands of the people, when the truth is electric cars are EXPENSIVE and INCONVENIENT. 
  the market has to have the demand for a product in order for it to be successful. The new hybrids are popular enough & save enough gas that people are willing to buy them for a lot more money.  They are also convenient: you don't have to stop at rest stop 272 on I-94 to charge your car for 4 hours..you just keep going.

my $ .000002

All documentaries are biased, but this wasn't as extreme as a Michale Moore documentary.  They didn't place the blame in one place, it was a combination of three or four different factors.  But they did successfully refute all the issues you brought up.

It's true that electric cars were more expensive, but there was a huge waiting list for them when they were being made.  There was demand.  They also point to the advertising for the electric car.  Almost all car adds have up beat music with the car zooming around and all shiny and cool.  The electric car adds were quiet, just a zoom out form a black and white image of shadows, talking about how this is the future.  It was kinda creepy, and not how you get people excited about cars.

The average person only drives 40 miles a day.  When the electric car first came out, the batteries lasted 60 miles.  For the most part, you charge your car at home during the night and it's ready for a full day of driving in the morning.  If you had to go to a station and charge up, you could get an 80% charge after 1 hour.  So you go and eat lunch, then your car is charged.  Batteries improved a great deal shortly after it was released, so now you can get just about as many miles per charge as a gas car.  So the only thing I see as inconvenient is having to wait an hour, sometimes.  But what makes it so much more convent is that you rarely ever have to go to a gas station at all. 

Also on the topic of convince, they very rarely break.  There are so few moving parts in the engine, because it's electric, that they don't need tune ups very often.  They don't need oil, and they don't need about half the stuff under your car.  And the brakes rarely go bad because the engine helps stop the car.

As for hybrids, they don't save that much on gas.  They are better than cars that aren't hybrids, for sure, but compared to an electric or plug in hybrid, they save you very little.  Now, plug in hybrids are different.  They, however, aren't available yet.  With plug in hybrids, you can plug it in at home to charge the battery, but you can also fill it with gas.  This means if you don't drive that much, you won't have to go to the gas station.  But if you do, then you're still ok.  That is personally what I want.

Anyway, the documentary is done really well.  They present arguments for each side, but of course more arguments for the side of the electric car.  It's defiantly something to watch.  If you can still argue it after you see it, then maybe you have a point.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

whoohoo another debate to entertain ME!!!

i just dont buy the argument there was a market for the electirc car.  Or rather i would say there wasnt a big ENOUGH market.  I could never buy one.  I need something that on a whim i can take across the nation without any effort.  Ive own my current car since 2001 If you include my deployments and other training there has been about a year i havent been able to drive it at all, it currently has 120,000 on the odometer.  I drive a lot and in large bursts.  So anything i got to stop and charge isnt gonna cut it, especially in the parts of the desert that just dont got a plug nearby.  I know other friends they are perfect for I am just not it. That was all rambling and didnt back up my point but i wanted to say it anyways.  I just dont see the market.  They dont have any real speed to speak of.  I know they CAN there was a cnn article about an electric car that had the fastest acceleration on the market beating out 12 cylinder monsters.  (built by some guys in silicon valley damn thing had only three moving parts in the engine)  If more cars had that type of muscle you would have a better market.

With plug in hybrids, you can plug it in at home to charge the battery, but you can also fill it with gas.

Ive seen some companys that will alter your hybrid to a plug in hybrid for you.

[Variety of Cells]

whoohoo another debate to entertain ME!!!

i just dont buy the argument there was a market for the electirc car.  Or rather i would say there wasnt a big ENOUGH market.  I could never buy one.  I need something that on a whim i can take across the nation without any effort.  Ive own my current car since 2001 If you include my deployments and other training there has been about a year i havent been able to drive it at all, it currently has 120,000 on the odometer.  I drive a lot and in large bursts.  So anything i got to stop and charge isnt gonna cut it, especially in the parts of the desert that just dont got a plug nearby.  I know other friends they are perfect for I am just not it. That was all rambling and didnt back up my point but i wanted to say it anyways.  I just dont see the market.  They dont have any real speed to speak of.  I know they CAN there was a cnn article about an electric car that had the fastest acceleration on the market beating out 12 cylinder monsters.  (built by some guys in silicon valley damn thing had only three moving parts in the engine)  If more cars had that type of muscle you would have a better market.

With plug in hybrids, you can plug it in at home to charge the battery, but you can also fill it with gas.

Ive seen some companys that will alter your hybrid to a plug in hybrid for you.

Of the electric cars they showed on the documentary, they all had really good acceleration.  A lot of people liked that about them.

And as for your not being able to see the market, here's the market.  Most people drive to work each day.  Most people don't live more than 40 miles from their work.  In fact, you probably only live about 15 to 10 miles from your work.  So they go to work, come back, maybe go get some groceries, pick the kids up at school.  On average, that'd under 40 miles a day.  Which is perfect.  You drive a little each day, but you still drive every day. 

Also, if electric cars were more popular, charging stations would be more common.  I'm assuming they would be different than gas stations as well, offering entertainment that would last a little longer.  Another nice thing would be for hotels to have charging stations for people on longer trips.  But then again, there's always the Plug in Hybrid for people like you.

The market is there.  And honestly, it shouldn't be a question of the existence of a market.  The technology for an emissionless car exists, isn't that worth it on its own?

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

i didnt say that doesnt make sense.  it makes TONS of sense, but since when has the buying public made any sense  coughcoughbetamaxcoughcough.  People want big FAST impractical cars.  Me the car thats in it for the long haul is gonna get my vote.  My dream is to drive from new york to LA without stopping and being totally affordable.  Thats my dream.  A car like this is good for my mom, my dad on the other hand it wouldnt work, anyone who has to deal with LA traffic realizes that the distance to a place has nothing to do with the time it takes to get their.  

[MrTorso]

anyone who has to deal with LA traffic realizes that the distance to a place has nothing to do with the time it takes to get their.  

No shit! Took me 2.5 hours to get through L.A. when I was driving back from the live show in SF. Sucked big time.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

depending on what freeway that is that would be called luck

My dad has about thirty or so miles to travel to work each day.  It takes about 3 hours to 4 hours pretty sad huh

[MrTorso]

It was the 5 to the 210 to the 10.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

yeah none of those are that good but if you had gone further south on the 5 it would have gotten REALLY bad.

[gbeenie]

Who Killed the Electric Car? is the most surprising documentary I've seen.  Mainly because I never knew there was such a thing as an electric car.  And it worked great, with no emissions.  It was fast, it was quiet, and it's a lot cheaper than paying for gas.  The only down side is that it couldn't go quite as far on one charge as you can on one tank of gas.  In my opinion, they also looked cool.  But it was completely taken off the market.  Hydrogen is still decades away, but the technology for electric cars more than just exists, it has existed.
Mild SpoilerAnd when they recalled them, they destroyed them all.  Took them to dumps and crushed them, even though they worked great.

As I understand it, the thing they don't tell the audience in that movie is the REAL reason the electric car is currently not a commercially viable option: it doesn't cut down on pollution, at least not in the U.S. Why? Because a HUGE percentage of our electric power is still generated by burning coal, which pollutes much more than gasoline-powered internal combustion. Why so many coal-powered plants still around in the beginning of the twenty-first century? That's REAL simple: radical "environmentalists" have all but eviscerated the American nuclear power industry.

With nuclear power, rechargeable electric cars are a great, economical, clean form of transportation. With our current coal-powered grid, they're an expensive feel-good status toy for people who want to believe they're "doing the right thing," in complete disregard of all evidence to the contrary.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

lol good post.  Lets not forgot all the waste that comes from that many extra batteries.

[gbeenie]

Who Killed the Electric Car? is the most surprising documentary I've seen.  Mainly because I never knew there was such a thing as an electric car.  And it worked great, with no emissions.  It was fast, it was quiet, and it's a lot cheaper than paying for gas.  The only down side is that it couldn't go quite as far on one charge as you can on one tank of gas......

i don't want to start another huge debate,but i don't like most of these documentaries because many have such an extreme POV that they are hopelessly biased (read as "anything michael moore has done..or an inconvenient truth"). 
my guess is they made it sound like a big conspiracy to keep the technology out of the hands of the people, when the truth is electric cars are EXPENSIVE and INCONVENIENT. 
  the market has to have the demand for a product in order for it to be successful. The new hybrids are popular enough & save enough gas that people are willing to buy them for a lot more money.

Consumer Reports conducted research last year on the economics of hybrid cars (now that they've been around for a few years); what they found, across the board for ALL hybrid models on the market, is that the savings in gas DOES NOT equal the greater cost of the vehicle itself.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

This is true, but they are lower emissions.  However the cost on them will come down with time and then it WILL be more, at least thats my logic anyways. 

[gbeenie]

whoohoo another debate to entertain ME!!!

i just dont buy the argument there was a market for the electirc car.  Or rather i would say there wasnt a big ENOUGH market.  I could never buy one.  I need something that on a whim i can take across the nation without any effort.  Ive own my current car since 2001 If you include my deployments and other training there has been about a year i havent been able to drive it at all, it currently has 120,000 on the odometer.  I drive a lot and in large bursts.  So anything i got to stop and charge isnt gonna cut it, especially in the parts of the desert that just dont got a plug nearby.  I know other friends they are perfect for I am just not it. That was all rambling and didnt back up my point but i wanted to say it anyways.  I just dont see the market.  They dont have any real speed to speak of.  I know they CAN there was a cnn article about an electric car that had the fastest acceleration on the market beating out 12 cylinder monsters.  (built by some guys in silicon valley damn thing had only three moving parts in the engine)  If more cars had that type of muscle you would have a better market.

With plug in hybrids, you can plug it in at home to charge the battery, but you can also fill it with gas.

Ive seen some companys that will alter your hybrid to a plug in hybrid for you.

Of the electric cars they showed on the documentary, they all had really good acceleration.  A lot of people liked that about them.

And as for your not being able to see the market, here's the market.  Most people drive to work each day.  Most people don't live more than 40 miles from their work.  In fact, you probably only live about 15 to 10 miles from your work.  So they go to work, come back, maybe go get some groceries, pick the kids up at school.  On average, that'd under 40 miles a day.  Which is perfect.  You drive a little each day, but you still drive every day. 

Also, if electric cars were more popular, charging stations would be more common.  I'm assuming they would be different than gas stations as well, offering entertainment that would last a little longer.  Another nice thing would be for hotels to have charging stations for people on longer trips.  But then again, there's always the Plug in Hybrid for people like you.

The market is there.  And honestly, it shouldn't be a question of the existence of a market.  The technology for an emissionless car exists, isn't that worth it on its own?

Not if it's not real. That's the point: if the car gets its charge from a power plant burning coal, then it is in no way "emissionless."

[gbeenie]

This is true, but they are lower emissions.  However the cost on them will come down with time and then it WILL be more, at least thats my logic anyways. 

I don't disagree. But until the cost DOES come down, they're not going to become as ubiquitous in anywhere NEAR the numbers their proponents would like.

[gbeenie]

lol good post.  Lets not forgot all the waste that comes from that many extra batteries.

Actually, battery technology has made leaps and bounds in the past twenty years; that's not the problem it used to be.