"Revenge of the Electric Car" movie

[Richard230]

The entertainment section of my newspaper today contains a review by Daniel M. Gold of the NY Times regarding a new movie titled "Revenge of the Electric Car".   Ironically, GM, who the article claims was "clearly rattled" by the 2006 movie "Who Killed the Electric Car", invited the director of "Revenge", Chris Paine, to document their development of the Chevy Volt and provided Bob Lutz to serve as "tour director".  "Over three years, ending in 2010, the film also tracks the ordeals of Elon Musk at Tesla Motors and Carlos Ghosn at Nissan Motors as they develop the Roadster and Leaf." The movie also "showers love on Greg Abbot, a California mechanic who converts gas-run cars to battery power".

The review continues that: "trying to retain its street-cred skepticism, the film cuts to analysts and journalists who note that concept cars often have been featured at auto shows, only to be driven back into the garage".  The film discuses that "daunting obstacles persist, such as battery life and driving-range limits, production costs and consumer-friendly pricing."

The review says that the information provided in the movie is nothing new for industry watchers, but for most audiences, "Revenge" is a "snapshot of a major industrial shift on its way to a tipping point". Lutz is quoted as saying that "electrification of the automobile is a forgone conclusion" and that "Ghosen has built his company's entire marketing strategy around that expectation".

Mr. Gold concludes that: "Revenge of the Electric Car" is "a slick, enjoyable valentine to a retooling industry". And the "optimistic film lacks the outrage of the the earlier work, but that is OK. A movement need its triumphs, too."

The movie is "not rated", its running time is 1 hour, 30 minutes, and Mr. Gold gave the movie a 2 & 1/2 star rating.

[FreepZ]

I would have loved to watch that movie when I first heard about it, a year or so ago. In fact, it was through looking at the "Revenge..." website that I ended up finding out about Brammo! Sadly, they are doing some weird distribution schedule, which means that I'm not going to be able to see it any time soon where I live; in Orlando FL. I appreciate that being an independent film means that they're not going to get their movie release by thousands of theaters on the same night, but I was somewhat surprised and disappointed that they had not chosen to make their film available through pay per view streaming. Simultaneously releasing a movie at the theater and on line is not unheard of and has been done before -- the rational was that the folks who would watch a movie over the Internet are not the same people who would watch it at the theater. It worked for me; I was able to watch "The Ledge" the day I heard about it, but as far as I know, the movie has never been in a theater around here.

The review says that the information provided in the movie is nothing new for industry watchers

I've been watching the industry pretty much since I started drooling over the Empulse, and I don't really expect to learn anything new. Nevertheless, I would still enjoy watching it, but by the time I finally get to see it, the movie may be old news. I.e. from the trailer, there appears to be some doubt about the success of the featured car companies, but all the uncertainty shown in the movie may be resolved way before I get a chance to see it.

[FreepZ]

"Revenge" finally came out on Netflix last week, and so I jumped on it.

There wasn't all that much that was new, but it was a nice overview of the industry (at least from the perspective of GM, Tesla, Nissan, and a custom builder named "Gadget"), and we get to see the personalities of some of the people behind the EV revolution.

I was a bit surprised at how current some of the footage was - I thought that I saw the October 2011 presentation of the Model S by Elon Musk (Nope, that wasn't the October 2011 presentation).
Also, there was no mention of Toyota's contribution to Tesla's salvation. They just showed Elon at the stock market, presumably of their first day of trading, and how their stock went up that day (rather than down in flames).

Bonus points if you can spot the Brammo Enertia in the movie (all 4 glorious seconds of it)! Does anyone on this forum know who the rider was? (Hint, the rider was behind an electrified Hummer.)