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MAN: Ladies and gentleman,
we are gathered here today

to bereave the loss
of something dear to us.

We are here today to say
goodbye to a special friend,

to say goodbye to an idea.

Some might say that
to be here gathered today

to mourn the loss of a car
would be going too far.

MARTIN SHEEN: In 1996,
electric cars began to appear

on roads all over California.

They were quiet and fast,

produced no exhaust
and ran without gasoline.

Ten years later,
these futuristic cars
were almost entirely gone.

What happened?

Why should we be haunted

by the ghost
of the electric car?

This wasn't the first time
the electric car was killed.

One hundred years ago,
there were more
electrics on the road

than there were gas cars.

For many people, electric cars
were the car of choice.

They were quiet and smooth
and could be charged at home.

Gas cars, by comparison,
required cranking
and produced exhaust.

Well, the reason I'm here,
I'm so old I remember
electric cars

when they were around
in the beginning.

I would have been
about six years old
on the way to the symphony

in that darling
little electric car.

They were very quiet,
and it had beveled
glass windows.

It was almost like
sitting inside of a huge lamp.

What happened?

Why did the gas car win
over the electric car?

SHEEN: As the 20th century
gathered speed,

the electric car
lost momentum.

Automatic starters,
cheaper oil

and mass production
gave the edge
to the gasoline car.

By 1920,
the internal combustion engine

had won the race
for control of the roads,

and the modern automobile age
was born.

Of the hundreds
of millions of cars
built in the 20th century,

almost none were electric.

They were sleek.
They were fast.

And they gave Americans
the open road.

But as time went on,
their number one flaw
became more apparent.

Smog.

JANANNE SHARPLESS:
California has the worst
air quality in the nation.

And it impacts
some of our largest
population centers.

Up in my district,
we have what is called
the black cloud of death

that hangs over
the port areas

and the areas
surrounding the ports.

We are seeing
some tremendously
debilitating effects,

asthma rates, cancer rates,
uh, lung development
in children,

children not being
allowed to play outside.

SHEEN: In 1989, a study found

that one out of four
15 to 25 year olds
in Los Angeles County

had severe lung lesions
and chronic respiratory
disease.

In 1990, there were 41
stage-one smog alerts.

No matter what
kind of car we drive,

every gallon of gas we burn

adds 19 pounds
of carbon dioxide to the air.

The more gas we burn,
the more CO2 we create.

If you don't do something
with that CO2,

if you don't sequester it,

then it's gonna be going up
into the atmosphere,

and CO2 is a global
warming gas.

WALLY RIPPEL:
I believe the problems

of, uh, global warming
will be far greater

than the problems
of social security

or even the problems
of war on terrorism.

DAVID FREEMAN:
We've got the equivalent
of a nuclear time bomb

on our hand
with global warming.

If lung disease
from air pollution
is unimportant,

if all those things
don't count,

uh, we're gonna be
in bad trouble.

ALAN LOWENTHAL: And there's
a public health crisis.

But we have
to have incentives,

and we have
to have alternatives.

SHEEN: Car companies
experimented with alternatives

over the years,
but none of them ever seemed

to make it out
of the proving grounds.

I remember I--I was
the chairman of the board

of the Tennessee
Valley Authority,

and we were promoting
the electric car back
in the late '70s.

I had even planned a race

from Gatlinburg,
Tennessee to Nashville

between Paul Newman
and Robert Redford.

And I had it all lined up,
and then I realized

that we'd get a lot
of national publicity,

but there were no--
there were no cars
in the showrooms.

SHEEN: It would take
a different kind of race

to make the electric car
the car of the future.

The Sunraycer was
a solar-powered vehicle

that was developed here
at AeroVironment,

uh, for the purpose
of winning a race.

SHEEN: In 1987, GM won

the World Solar Challenge race
in Australia

with a one-of-a-kind,
solar-powered
electric vehicle,

the Sunraycer.

Emboldened by their success,
GM's CEO, Roger Smith,

challenged
the same design team
to build a prototype

for a practical electric car.

RIPPEL: If we were to go
full speed ahead
with electric cars,

the electronics
had to be good enough

in order to warrant
that concept,

and that's where the work
of Alan Cocconi came in.

MAN: Now,
you built the--the prototype
for this in--in your garage?

Yes. Well, my garage
isn't quite the average
garage.

It's actually a pretty good
machine shop

and electronics lab.
But, yes, I built it there.

It's like a three-channel
stereo amplifier.

It provides the right-size
sine waves

and right frequency
to drive the motor

for all the different
driving conditions.

So it's a 100,000-watt
stereo amplifier.

SHEEN: Alan's breakthrough
power system helped
create an electric car

unlike any that had
ever been driven before.

They'd kept this car
also a secret

and much better than any
other Detroit secret,

'cause it was all developed
out here in California.

So it--it truly was a surprise
when it was introduced

to the Los Angeles Auto Show.

This is going to represent
a great step forward
for people

in terms of commuting to work,
from work,

if you don't have to go
more than 120 miles a day.

Other than the jokes
that we made

about the wisdom of calling
a vehicle the Impact,

um, it was very impressive.
It was very high-tech

and it had
an interesting premise,

that we've got this sort
of Corvette-electric-type car,

two-seater, slick styling
and all that,

and that we can make
a business out of it.

It was interesting.

I--I had worked
with the program manager
who then called me and said,

"Would you like to be on
the electric vehicle program?"

And I said, "That's fine.
What do you want me to do?"

And he said very simply,

"Develop demand for
electric vehicles worldwide."

And I said, "Do you
have any instructions?"

And he took a blank
piece of paper and shoved it
in front of me and he said,

"No instructions.
You go figure it out."

And so at that point
I joined the program.

Uh, it got a lot of interest
flowing in the industry,

uh, but it did something else.

It caught the attention
of the California
Air Resources Board.

SHEEN: California's
Air Resources Board,

or CARB as it was known,

saw the electric car
as an opportunity to
solve another problem.

SHARPLESS: Since GM
had already announced

that they were
going to produce
an electric vehicle

before we even
adopted the mandate,

the electric vehicle
technology became
sort of the technology

of greatest promise.

SHEEN: Knowing a modern
electric car was now possible,

California regulators
took a bold
and unprecedented step.

They passed the Zero Emissions
Vehicle Mandate.

The mandate was simple.

If automakers
wanted to continue
to sell cars in California,

some of those cars
would have to be
vehicles with no exhaust.

GREG HANSSEN: They decided
they were gonna ramp it up.

We're going to say
2% in '98,

we're gonna say
5% in 2001
and 10% in 2003.

SHEEN: For the car companies,
there were only two options,

comply with the law
or fight it.

In the end,
they would do both.

WOMAN:
The electric car is here.

The EV1 from General Motors.

SHEEN: The Impact prototype
became the EV1,

the first modern
electric production car

from a major US car company
in nearly a century.

GM chose its Saturn division
to market it in California
and Arizona.

CHELSEA SEXTON: I bought
my first Saturn at 17
and they said,

"Do you want to
come work here?"

So I thought, okay.
It would be a good
college job.

I'll put myself
through college
this way.

And turned out
I loved the cars more

than I loved-- what I was
studying in college,

and three years later
they announced

the EV1 program,
and I jumped on it.

There were the 13 of us,
most of whom were mid-20s,
unattached,

single, no kids, willing to
do anything for little money.

We all handled
a particular
geographic region.

Mine started as LA,
and--and I worked
with everybody

from engineers and students
to celebrities.

ALL: * I say! I say!
I say Alexandra! *

I have a picture of myself

just hearing the Saturn song
and just being so happy.

LOWENTHAL: I had
one of those early EV1s,

and I used it here
in the capital.

I loved the car.

COLETTE DIVINE: It's sort
of like everything
Americans want in a car.

They're cool,
they're fast, they're sexy.

I mean,
I got in the car
and I felt like...

It was fairly
reasonably priced.

It was between
$250 and $500 a month.

I haven't tried
accelerating too much,

because there're
too many cops around.

I'm afraid I'll get a ticket.
I'll be too excited.

TOM HANKS: Believe it or not,
that sucker goes.

It will take you
down the PCH so fast
you could get a ticket.

I did kind of feel
like Batman, you know,
that sort of, like...

And the way it takes off
out of the cave.

You know, I have this gate
that opens and it goes...

(TIRES SQUEALING)

KAREN THOMAS: You get inside,

and the console
is really near you

and the lighting
is beautiful.

It was quiet.

(WHOOSHING)

The car was so fast
it looked like it would
outrun its own shadow.

Oh, it's an awesome car
to drive.

It was the--the crest
of a wave that we thought
was coming in.

It was the new thing
that was going to,
you know,

change the way
everybody travels.

SHEEN: Other car companies
began to comply,

often with conversions
of gas cars,

but with many of the same
advantages of the EV1.

ALEXANDRA PAUL:
I'm not mechanical at all,

and I love dealing
with my electric car
'cause it's so easy.

I plug it in at night,
and when I need
to drive it, I unplug

and drive it away.

They're for people
who love the environment.

I say, they're just
for people who love cars.

They're for people
who have to go somewhere.

HANKS: Well, this is amazing.

What you do is with
this electric car, Dave,
you put the key in

and you turn it.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Wow.

And then there's
this thing on the floor
called the pedal. A pedal.

The exciting thing about this
is the cost of operating
the car

is the same as
if you were driving
a typical gasoline car.

But the gasoline only costs
60 cents a gallon.

Going to the gas station
is a hassle,
believe it or not.

Plugging a car in is not.

The battery,
which you charge at home,

it, uh, gets about, between
70 and 80 miles per charge,

which for me is more
than all the driving

that I need to do
in the course of a day.

HANSSEN: People started
seeing the cars on the road

and getting
a better understanding
of what they could do.

Friends and neighbors
and relatives started saying,

"Hey, that's a neat idea."
You know,

"I should get one of those."

And we started seeing
the momentum building
for this

and the waiting lists
being created for these cars.

Cut two.
Cut two.

I go online to look
for other Toyota RAV4s,
and I see Toyota RAV4 EV.

And I said,
"What's that?" Click.

Wow, my whole world
opened up.

It's this electric vehicle.

It goes, you know,
100 miles to a charge,
blah, blah, blah, blah...

I was just like,
"I didn't know this existed.

"I--I didn't know
this was a possibility.

"How come I don't
know about this?

"W-W-Well,
have you seen this on TV?"

When I first tried to
buy the Honda EV Plus,

I drove in it and I said,
"Hey, this is a great car."
I said, "I'll take it."

Uh, the--the person who was
trying to sell it to us
was dumbfounded.

He didn't know what to do.
He'd never--never leased
one before.

Didn't know how to do it,
and it took me six weeks
of negotiations

before I was able to
get the car from their hands.

T-There's nothing
like driving a car

when you realize
as you're sitting in traffic,

there's no pollution
coming out of your tailpipe.

There's, you're just sitting
there with batteries on.

LETTERMAN: By driving
an electric car,
what are you sparing us from?

I'm saving America, Dave,
that's what I'm doing.

(LETTERMAN CHUCKLING)
I am saving America,

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
uh, by driving
an electric car.

SHEEN: Not everyone was sure
that electric cars would
save America.

Even as GM rolled out
its first batch of EV1s,
there were skeptics.

Consumer acceptance
and understanding

has been a key issue
in all this.

Um, and what we discovered
is that people

are very cautious
about the electric car.

I would consider it,
but I--I don't know.

I haven't done
enough research,

and I don't know
if they're, like,

gonna be strong and big
and dependable.

I have to know
where I can go to,
like, recharge it,

or how to, what I got
to do for the battery.

RAMI KHOURY: People don't
want a mini tiny car

that has 15-inch wheels
on there.

How is he gonna fix that up
and go around town
and parade it?

SHEEN: While some consumers
expressed skepticism about
electric cars,

California was pressured
to drop the mandate.

A group called
Californians Against
Utility Company Abuse

fought a small
utility surcharge
to build charging stations.

They would go to local
city council meetings
and say,

"You don't want to put in
an electric vehicle
charging station there.

"That's a waste
of--of taxpayer money."

They had this
list of supporters.

You know,
companies like Trader Joe's

and others which
you'd say like,

"Why would they support
something like this?"

So the EV drivers
actually got together
and started writing letters

to some of these people
that were listed
on their website

as being supporters and said,
"Do you realize
what you're supporting here?"

And they-- and they got
all these names removed
from the list.

SHEEN: Further investigation
revealed that these groups

were consumer organizations
in name only,

funded almost exclusively
by the oil industry.

Oil companies also paid
for editorials in national
publications.

They even argued
that the environmental
benefits of EVs were dubious.

With electric vehicles,
we're gonna have to shift
our energy away from oil,

and if we shift it
to coal,

there are some
environmental problems

that are just
very disconcerting.

BILL REINERT: Right now
in the United States,
we're 55% coal.

If you run the numbers
with standard coal
power plants,

you don't end up with
a better environmental
performance,

you end up
with a longer tailpipe.

Well, there've been
numerous studies conducted

by the California
Energy Commission

that clearly show
that electric drive is
substantially more efficient

and substantially
less polluting

even if you
get your electricity
from coal-fired plants.

SHEEN: But the arguments
against electrics
did not stop there.

They even made
the ridiculous argument

that there was
an environmental
justice issue involved,

because they said only
rich people could buy
electric cars.

Well, the air doesn't
know a boundary

between Brentwood
and South LA.

SHEEN: Car companies
began to argue that
the mandate was too strict.

W-We had to help
with the regulations.

The regulatory people knew
nothing about this stuff,

and we began
to get the eerie feeling

that we were
going over a cliff.

It wasn't going
to be possible.

California was faced
with the prospect of,
"What do you do

"if the car companies
don't comply?"

And so rather than, you know,
do brinksmanship

about what would happen
if they didn't comply
and stick with it,

they started negotiating,

um, you know, certain
flexibility in the mandate.

SHEEN: California compromised
with the automakers,

adopting a memorandum
of agreement.

One of the agreements
with the state

was that the automakers
would build

and market electric vehicles
in accordance with demand.

SHEEN: If they didn't
want to build more of them,

the car companies would
have to make the case
that there was no demand.

The person will go unnamed,

but we were having, uh,
lunch in the executive
dining room

at the GM Tech Center one day.

And just the two of us,
and he leans over to me
and he says,

"Dabels,
you know something?
You're my worst enemy."

And I said, "Why is that?"
And he said,

"Well, I'm out there
lobbying to show

"that there's no demand
for electric vehicles,

"and you're out there
proving me wrong."

We would sit down
with Hal Riney
or with executives

from GM and make,
you know...

"How far? How fast? How much?
These are the three questions
we're getting.

"Please put it
in the advertising.
It's not rocket science."

And they would go back
and do the exact opposite.

You know,
we never saw a TV ad

with an electric car
scampering up
the side of a hill

with a good-looking man
or woman draped around it.

That's the way
they sell cars.

WOMAN: 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?

And then you will ask,

how did we go
so long without it?

The electric car.

It isn't coming,

it's here.

SHEEN: What was the objective
of these advertisements?

Was it to entice consumers
or to scare them away?

Our goal at GM was to make
the full-functioning
battery electric vehicle

a commercially viable
business opportunity
for General Motors.

SHEEN: GM's spokesman,
Dave Barthmuss,

has worked for GM
for nearly 10 years.

We spent in excess
of one billion dollars

to drive this market,
to build the market.

That means
award-winning advertising,
developing the vehicle,

developing the recharging
infrastructure.

And in a four-year time frame,
from roughly 1996 to 2000,

we were able to lease
800 EV1s.

So we started
this waiting list

in order to prove demand
to GM,

but no matter how many people
we got on that list,

it was never considered
enough demand.

Everything was anecdotal
to GM.

We have heard about
these l-l-long waiting lists,

and frankly we did have
a list of roughly 4,000 people

that raised their hands
and said, you know,

"I would be interested
in getting a new EV1
and being an EV1 leasee."

We contacted
each of those folks

and we whittled
that list down,

and when we actually
got down to a point
where we were able

to have somebody
sign on the dotted line,

that list from 4,000 people
shrunk to about 50.

CHELSEA: Only recently
did they finally admit

that there actually
was a waiting list

and tried to explain
in the way of,

"By the time we explained
all the limitations

"of the car to them,
only 50 would sign up."

Well, if you sincerely
want to market a product,

you don't start out
by describing

the limitations
of the product.

SHEEN: Tom Everhart
is president emeritus
at Caltech.

He served on GM's
board of directors
for 13 years.

I do not think
General Motors tried hard

to get the electric cars
out rapidly.

Now whether the CEO
of General Motors

understood that, I don't know.

We had to ask permission
of whoever we wanted
to give a car to,

and then, by the end,
when we were low on cars,

we had to write
case statements.

And we tried to put the cars
in hands of celebrities,

because they were, number one,
the only ones that stood
a chance of getting the car.

The third grade
science teacher
didn't stand a chance.

I had to write a resume
for Mel Gibson

and what he'd done
and accomplished

because the people
I was talking to
didn't believe

that he warranted a car.

I was wondering, "Why do
I have to fill this out?"
you know.

You had to tell them where
your birthmarks were,
you know.

I mean, it was everything,
you know.

"Have you recently
had a proctoscope, uh,
inserted into your..."

"Well, no."

Uh, you know, you had to--
you had to get really specific

about a whole bunch of things.

Consumers wanted it,
but they regarded it
as a limited vehicle,

and they expected to pay
a limited price for it.

And there's nothing irrational
about the consumer that said
that to us.

That's a perfectly
reasonable statement.

"You're giving me
a vehicle that does less,
I wanna pay less."

Okay.

But unfortunately
I couldn't make it for less.

They argued things like money,

and they're too
expensive to build,

and yet they're
building four a day.

I mean, they were
very hand-built cars
with specialized components.

And had they
mass-marketed them,

they, of course,
would have come down.

SHEEN: As car companies
made the case
there was no demand,

electric vehicle advocates
thought
they had a sympathetic ear

with the appointment
of environmental scientist,
Dr. Alan Lloyd,

as chairman
of the California
Air Resources Board.

First time
I presided over that,

I felt that the car companies
weren't making significant
effort to it,

so I felt that,
"Well, flog them harder,

"flog them often.
They need to do better."

For the regulation,
we felt, needed to be
changed drastically.

And there was
some movement that way,
but--but it didn't go away.

SHEEN: While the car companies
fought the mandate
in Sacramento,

GM quietly closed
its EV1 assembly line

and began laying off
its sales force.

CHELSEA: All of a sudden
we were not only taken off

the project but taken out
of the company.

They started with
the ones with the most...

The biggest waiting lists
and the most customers,

and, you know,
the primary areas

were the ones
they dismantled first.

And so at the end
of 2001, you know,
that was it

in terms of my employment
with General Motors.

Studying General Motors'
practices over the years,

and I don't speak
for the engineers
and scientists

who would really
have liked to have done

a better job with
motor-vehicle technology,

but the executives
at the top,

their motto seemed
to have been,

"Going backwards
into the future."

And that's what they've been
doing for decades.

SHEEN: As a veteran
consumer advocate,

Ralph Nader used
grassroots campaigns

to make cars safer
and more fuel-efficient.

He's familiar
with the tactics used

by the auto industry
to resist change.

RALPH NADER: There're all
kinds of ways

that they can bring
politicians to their knees.

Once the auto companies
get a long lee time,

then they go to work
eroding, eroding,

and then when the deadline
is approaching,
they say we can't do it,

and there are gonna
be terrible consequences.

SHEEN: Automakers took
the fight to a new level.

They sued California's
Air Resources Board.

GM lead the lawsuit,
soon joined by Chrysler

and several auto dealerships.

As California withered
under the pressure,

the carmakers found
a powerful new ally,

the federal government.

Shortly after
joining the suit,

the Bush administration
made another announcement.

Tonight I'm proposing
$1.2 billion
in research funding

so that America
can lead the world

in developing clean
hydrogen-powered automobiles.

(CLAPPING)

SHEEN: The federal government
joined the car
and oil industries

to embrace a new clean
car of the future.

With more than a billion
federal dollars up for grabs,

over the next few years
the campaign for hydrogen
fuel cell vehicles

began to sway California.

MAN ON TV: Hello there
and welcome to the California
Fuel Cell Partnership

where we're fueling
the future in a new

and environmentally
friendly way.

Automakers, energy
and technology providers,

along with government agencies

are voluntarily
working together

to commercialize the fuel cell
for cars and buses.

Soon you may see
some of these cars

cruising through
your very own neighborhood.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER:
We wanna just dream about
the hydrogen fueling stations.

We wanna just dream
about the hydrogen cars.
We will build it.

The hydrogen Hummer
is not a production vehicle,
it's a concept vehicle.

It's a way for
Governor Schwarzenegger
to have a property

at various events
that he goes to
when he unveils

a new hydrogen
refueling station.
At LAX, for example.

SCHWARZENEGGER: I am going
to encourage the building

of a hydrogen highway

to take us
to the environmental future.

SHEEN: While hydrogen
fuel cells offered

an exciting alternative
sometime in the future,

what would happen
to the technology of today?

What would happen
to the electric car?

It all came down
to a decisive meeting

at California's
Air Resources Board.

Citizens and industry
alike testified

as CARB prepared
to vote on the fate
of the electric car.

I'd also like to thank
all the other stakeholders,

particularly also
the auto industry

who is going to also
have a major impact here.

I like the fact that hydrogen
might be in a position

to, uh, displace, uh,
the petroleum, uh, products.

DORENE D'ADAMO: I share
your optimism on fuel cells,
just not to the extent.

I think it's
a bait-and-switch,
um, uh, strategy.

I hope I'm wrong.

I'm concerned that
we've picked numbers

that are based
entirely on fuel cells.

What if fuel cells don't work?

It seems that most
of the recent changes

to the mandate
have been designed

to ease the burden
on the automakers.

You're part of
the environmental
protection agency,

not the corporate
profit protection agency.

I think that we've
been a contributor
to this marketplace, too...

ALAN LLOYD:
I agree, I agree, I agree.

But, remember,
there are many of you.

We're not giving more time
to the auto manufacturers.

Lou Browning, I think,
had--had the, uh, job
to present the EPRI report,

and he'd been
promised 10 minutes.

Uh, one of the things
we've found...

Dr. Browning, I would
appreciate if you could

summarize this
in three minutes.

Okay, I thought I had 10
but...

Alan Lloyd cut him off,
whereas he had given
the automakers,

uh, sort of unlimited
time earlier in the day.

And the improvements
we need in fuel cells

are to get, uh,
mainly to get the cost down.

In addition, we've recently
certified and introduced

the Honda FCX
fuel cell vehicle.

Largely, this work
is being pushed forward

through the California
Fuel Cell Partnership,

which has been very valuable
in pulling together
the diverse interests.

Any new information
on batteries that--that
sort of didn't-- didn't mesh

with the overall conclusions
was really just shut out

very fast by Alan Lloyd.

Let's get it clear.
I'm not trying to show any--
any bias or anything here.

And there were 80 people
who came to speak
for electric cars

and only two
industry representatives

on the side, uh,
to kill the mandate.

We have four people
out of 78

who are supporting
this proposal.

How did we end up with this?

This is a tough,
tough program.

It's a revolutionary program.

It pushes
the automakers hard.

And they don't like it,
and they push back hard.

As you deliberate today
on the fate of this program,

I urge you to summon
all of your political courage

to make the hard choices
that you know

you need to make
on this program.

Because when it comes
to protecting the health

of the people of California,

there are simply no more
easy choices to make.

I saw this as losing
this wonderful opportunity,

that we had really
invested a great deal

in the infrastructure,
in the technology.

It was like the rug
was pulled out.

They gave it away.
And to me that's just sad.

It's a sad commentary
on the way our society

and our system in--in
the United States works.

When GM introduced
the EV1,

California was setting
the toughest

auto pollution standards
in the nation.

10% of all cars
sold here this year

were to be zero-emission
vehicles.

But California
dropped those standards

after being sued
by automakers.

A lot of the vehicles,
the Honda vehicles,
the General Motors vehicles,

were all leased
and nobody had
the option to buy.

So the automakers
took advantage of that

and pulled all the cars
off the road.

They weren't willing
to let people take the cars

and actually drive them
and keep driving them
like normal cars.

I'll tell you when I noticed
that GM was losing interest

was when I wanted
to re-lease my car
and they wouldn't let me.

I've never had a product
I've had to beg and fight

and--and, uh, cajole

and persist so much to get.

And then I had to try
and beg and--and fight

and find any way
possible to try and keep.

Well, they did not give you...
They didn't give
you an option to buy.

They said, "Thank you
for leasing the car.

"Bye-bye." That's it.

"Turn it in by such
and such a day

"or you're gonna
be held liable."

CHELSEA: GM had very quietly
gone about taking cars back

without anybody
saying very much

other than some
of the drivers

that complained about having
their cars taken away,

but never in a big
organized fashion.

They had no choice
but to turn them in

or, you know,
face the legal consequences
of basically stealing a car.

To my knowledge
all the cars were turned in

because people had
too much to lose.

To this day,
the automakers have fought
anyone actually understanding

how much demand there was
and how much demand
that there is.

And so we decided
we were going to fight them

in whatever way we could,
and we became organizers.

SHEEN: Across California,
drivers held protests
to save electric cars.

"...turned my head
around about electric cars.

"And it broke me
of my addiction to oil."

(BAGPIPE PLAYING)

SHEEN:
Unable to change policy,

activists staged a funeral
to raise public awareness.

It was the same month
as the first
stage-one smog alert

in Southern California
in five years.

I was an EV1 driver,
still am,

from 1998 until December
of this year

when GM will have
to pry it out

of my charger's
dead cold hands.

(CROWD LAUGHING)

What the detractors
and the critics

of electric vehicles have been
saying for years is true.

The electric vehicle
is not for everybody.

Given the limited range,
it can only meet the needs
of 90% of the population.

(CLAPPING)

People used to ask me,
"Why do you do what you do?"

And I, especially
after I had my son,
told them,

"I figure if I do
my job well enough,

"my son will never know a time

"before there were
electric cars on the road."

And he rode in an EV1
on the way over here,
and he said,

"I wish we could keep
the EV1 for a long time."

And all I could say was,
"Me, too."

SHEEN: By the summer of 2004,

there was only
a single EV1 left

in private hands
in southern California.

PETER HORTON: Today is D-day.
Today is the end.

GM did do it right.

They did create a great,
great car.

It's well-engineered,
it's well-designed
and it's enjoyable to drive.

I've never seen a company
be so cannibalistic about
its own product before.

It's-- It's such
an odd experience.

MAN:
What makes that car go?

You press this button.

GIRL:
Press that right there.

HORTON: It's an electric car
like Daddy's was.

Hey, you got here
just in time.

I know. I see that.

So sad.

This is the EV specialist
I was talking about
who gave me her car.

It's completely sad.
Heartbroken.

Are you kidding me?

They're my babies,
every one of them.

A lot of-- a lot of human
potential just drove off.

The fight continues.

CHELSEA: It does.

SHEEN: With no more
electric cars on the road,

General Motors
now had possession
of their entire EV1 fleet.

Why did they want them back?

What were they going
to do with these cars?

We had discovered
78 EV1s parked
in the back parking lot

of a facility that
GM owns in Burbank.

But taking off the cars
that were on the road
that were running fine,

just let those people
drive those cars

until they can't
drive them anymore.

MAN: Where're you guys from?

SCOTT:
We're from the EV1 Club,

and we want to come
and take a--a look
at our cars.

I know they're being
mothballed here.

Yeah, I have no authorization
for you guys

to come back there
and look at the cars.

Can we just go and like...

No.

SHEEN: There were no clues
as to where the cars
were going

until a rumor surfaced
on the Internet.

We had the understanding,
uh, through back-channels

that these vehicles
were about to be taken

to the Arizona
proving grounds.

SHEEN: Many EV1s
had apparently been
trucked out of state

to GM's vast proving grounds
in Mesa, Arizona.

MAN: ...so large and it has
the track denoted...

The location was off-limits
to the public,

and there was
no way of knowing
where the EV1s might be.

CHRIS PAINE ON RADIO:
We're flying over GM.

No where around.

There they are.

Wow.

Well, we flew over
General Motors,

and looking down we could see
right next to the race track

where the EV1
was first tested, we saw,

I don't know,
maybe 50 EV1s crushed

and put on top
of semi-flatbeds

right next
to the yellow crusher.

General Motors is almost
finished off, I think.

I don't imagine there's
very many EV1s left that
haven't been--been crushed up.

It's pretty sad.

DAVE BARTHMUSS: There's
one of four things that
will happen with the EV1s.

They'll go to
colleges and universities
and engineering schools.

They'll go to museums
and other displays
across the country.

Other EV1 vehicles
are being driven
by our engineers.

And the other option
for the EV1s

at the end of their life
is recycling.

But know that every one,
every part of the EV1
is going to be recycled,

dismantled through
a third party and then reused.

Everything is going
to be recycled.

We're not just
going to crush it

and send it off
to a landfill.

When I saw the picture
of the pile of crushed cars,

it--it hurt and I, you know,
I thought it was, uh,
pretty spiteful.

To see, on the,
you know, on the computer,
on the I-Internet,

the--the crushed
EV1s that GM did...

It was-- it was wrong.
It was wrong.

Tragic. That was tragic.

But more wrong
is the reasons for it.

All of a sudden
we were sort of left at odds.
You know, "What do we do now?"

And at the time that
most of this was going on,

no one had any idea
that every automaker
was going to jump ship.

SHEEN: More Internet tips
revealed that the EV1s

were not the only
electric vehicles
in jeopardy.

A number of Ford Th!nks
and Ranger electric trucks

were discovered
in Palm Springs

and rumored to be
set for destruction.

In Los Angeles,
activists spotted

a truck-load of Toyota
RAV4 EVs.

Fearing the destination
was a crushing facility,
they chased it.

The next morning,
the truck turned back.

LINDA NICHOLES:
That guy was going
as fast as he possibly could

in a big transport like that,

trying to lose us,
it was clear.

But wasn't able
to do it and, of course,

that did change
Toyota's plans.

It was so inconsistent,
they didn't know
what the hell to do.

Then he goes
to the end of the pier,

and these two big
security guards come out,

they open this locked gate,

truck goes inside and--
and then the security guards
come out and surveil us.

Somehow we ended up
at--at this godforsaken place.

Which has everything.

It has spewing smoke
into the harbor that
kids have to breathe.

It has an oil well
and it has Toyota,
which is supposed to be

the greenest car company,
but which is simultaneously
crushing

and hiding the fact
that they're crushing
clean RAV4 EVs,

instead of selling them
to willing customers.

SHEEN: No one had seen
Honda's electric cars

since they were taken
from customers.

Then, an episode of
California's Green
aired on PBS.

So we're gonna be able
to see cars shredded today.

Absolutely.

Which is not something
most of us get to see.

We shred the cars,
about a car a minute,

1,000 cars a day
on a good day.

And what's interesting,
the first thing

we noticed when
we drove up here,

you're gonna be shredding
some new cars here, too.

These look like
perfectly good cars.

Why are you
shredding them up?

Uh, little bit
of a mystery really

since I've been here
the last eight years.

They bring us these cars
from the dealerships

and say that
they're test cars.

And they've been brought over
to test various emissions,

and the insurance companies
won't reinsure them.

So, they have to watch them
destroyed here.

HUELL HOWSER: Boy,
that seems like a shame.

I'd like to drive off
in one of these things.

(ROARING)

Ladies and gentlemen,
that's the sound
of a crushed automobile

being shredded
into a million pieces.

There's no precedent
for a car company rounding up

every one of a particular
kind of car,

and crushing them
as if they're afraid
one might get away.

I think they
wanted to be sure

that none of them
were driving around
in the streets anymore,

to remind people that
there is such a thing
as an electric car.

CHELSEA: People keep making
all these analogies about,

you know, crushing the EV
is a betrayal of the American
dream.

It's not a dream.
I mean, it's here and now.

It may be a betrayal
of my dream,

but it's a betrayal
of the American reality.

SHEEN: After the discovery
of the crushed EV1s
in Arizona,

electric car drivers
took action.

They vowed to keep watch
over the remaining EV1s

being stored at the GM
facility in Burbank.

There are about 70 cars
left in California.

They're in the parking lot
behind me,

and they have plans
to crush those, as well.

And we need
to make a call-out action

on General Motors
to give them back.

You know, we ended up
rallying enough troops

in terms of interests
and organizations
to join our coalitions,

and then simply didn't leave,

and stayed, you know,
24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

It's 6:00 a.m., and
I've been here for an hour,
part of the vigil.

We're making sure
that GM doesn't sneak out
their cars in the back lot.

The first two weeks
we were pretty much ignored.

It was, like, monsoon rains,

and it was kind of depressing
to be out there,

but at the same time,
there was such
a sense of mission.

I was here this morning
from about 5:45 a.m.,

and, you know,
it's pretty--
it's pretty quiet.

Finally, on day 15,
we did this announcement
of this offer.

SHEEN: As the EV activists
recorded the VIN numbers
of the cars in storage,

Chelsea led
a last-ditch effort
to buy the cars from GM.

CHELSEA: "Okay, General Motors
contends that no one wants
these EV1s here.

"Would anybody be
willing to buy them

"for the residual
price of the lease?"

And within 48 hours,
over 80 people had signed up.

There were only
78 cars in that lot,

and already
we had a waiting list

for a car
that wasn't available.

You know, it was a tremendous
deja vu moment.

So, at this point,
we thought it would
be appropriate

to come full circle
and join me
in holding this check

offering $1.9 million
to General Motors

to put these cars
back on the road.

(CROWD CHEERING)

SHEEN: Despite the offer,
GM did not respond.

The fate of the last 78 EV1s
remained in doubt.

A small group
of activists would
continue their vigil,

to keep the dream of
the electric car alive.

Who controls the future?

Uh, whoever has
the biggest club.

It's, um, in more ways
than one.

One they can bash you in
and one they can belong to.

(ALL CHATTERING)

Gentlemen! Gentlemen!

I know you're all
worried and I agree.

There's plenty
to be worried about.

Like this solar power plant

already operational
outside Los Angeles.

Photovoltaic cells,

they convert sunlight
directly into electricity.

Fluorescents,
lasts 10 times as long
as a conventional light bulb,

uses only a quarter
of the power.

Super windows,
insulate as well as
10 sheets of glass.

An electric car,
partially powered
by solar panels.

But the truth is, gentlemen,

I'm not worried about
any of these things.

Because no one's ever
going to know about them.

So, there's all these
conspiracy theories
out there

about, "Who killed
the electric car?"

So really, "Who killed
the electric car?"

Well, unfortunately,
I can't summarize
that in one sentence.

What killed
the electric vehicle,

very simply, I think,
is lack of corporate wisdom.

Uh, in my opinion,
it's-- it's big oil that
killed the electric car.

Alan Lloyd killed
the electric car program.
I was there when he did it.

The California
Air Resources Board
killed the electric car,

under huge pressure
from the auto companies.

They were an accessory
to the murder,

but the murder was committed
by the General Motors company.

I don't believe
that for a minute.

GM would sell you a car
that ran on pig shit

if it-- if it sold.

SHEEN: Carmakers argued that
there was not enough demand
for the electric car.

Claiming to have spent
millions of dollars
on advertising,

they said buyers
weren't interested.

But did consumers even know
that the car existed?

MAN: Did you ever
see this car advertised
or hear anything about it?

Never. That's what
I'm trying to say.

It's totally under
the scope of the radar.

I don't know
who drives an EV1, actually.

MAN:
You don't know anybody?

Anybody.

Maybe Fernando.
I know Fernando...

Fernando,
did you ever drive an EV1?

FERNANDO: I've heard of them.

He's-- He's heard of them.

So, they're not making
those cars in California
anymore?

No. They're not
making them anywhere.

That's really too bad.
We need those cars.

So, why are they
getting rid of it?

MAN: Well,
they, uh, said that there
was no demand for the car.

Are they insane?
That's a no-brainer.
Of course there's a demand.

Save gas, save people,
save air, save oxygen,
save the world.

All sounds good to me.

JOHN WALLACE:
We've been selling
vehicles for a century,

and you,
as you might imagine,

we've sort of figured out
what people wanted.

If you ask them, they say,
"Well, I want 300-mile range.

"I wanna be able to go
85 or 90 miles an hour.

"And I wanna
carry four passengers
and have a big trunk."

Which is basically
what we were already selling.

DIVINE: I've said this
time and time again.

People will buy anything
you convince them to buy.

They feed people enough,
and they--they believe
that's the diet.

Consumers, they couldn't see
the difference

between an electric car
and a car they were
already driving.

You know, because
they don't-- they don't
read environmental impact.

You know, they don't
read political instability
caused by oil production

in the Middle East.

All they read is,
"Does this car work,
and how much does it cost?"

DAN NEIL: What really killed
EVs was American consumers

because they did
not accept this idea,
uh, did not embrace it,

uh, that, uh, vehicles
could have these
limited ranges

and still be functional,
useful, practical.

SHEEN: Did the electric car
die because of battery
technology?

Did EVs really not
have enough range?

And did car companies use
the best batteries available?

BILL WYLAM: The battery
technology at that time
was lead acid batteries

and allowed the car
to go 60 miles.

If you started out
on a trip knowing

that you were gonna
go dead in 60 miles,

you'd be nervous
about making the trip.

SCOTT: People think
that they need a car
that will go 300 miles

and be able to charge it up
or refuel it in five minutes.

For virtually,
you know, 90-95%

of your driving,
you really don't need that.

You need
a vehicle that will go
at least 60 miles or so,

and that way your--your
daily commute is covered.

SHEEN: For those who
wanted greater range

from an EV,
100 miles or more,

a better battery
already existed.

Developed by
a well-known inventor
working in Troy, Michigan,

about 30 miles from
General Motors Headquarters.

I'm Stan and...

And Iris Ovshinsky.

I think you shouldn't
do it that way.

You should say
you're Stan Ovshinsky,

and then I'll say
I'm Iris Ovshinsky.

Don't do it that way.
It sounds funny.

SHEEN: With over 200
patents to his name,

Stan Ovshinsky had
pioneered a new battery

and GM purchased
controlling share
of his company.

We were chosen
over 60 different,
uh, big companies,

like Westinghouse and others,

who wanted to, uh,
win the race to make
the batteries

that would be used
in pure electric cars.

And we were chosen
because we had a battery.

And, uh, to us,
putting it into a car

was not the most
gigantic thing.

What were we supposed to do?

But you did sort of expect
champagne and roses.

I expected
champagne and roses.

When I said that
we're going to put in

a paragraph
into the newspaper

that said we had
achieved this,

I really expected
congratulations to flow in.

And then I knew that
something was different

when the opposite happened.

SHEEN: Ovshinsky was
censured for publicizing

his battery advances
without permission

and asked not to run
advertising in national
publications.

The EV1 debuted
with a weaker battery.

It would be another two years
before Ovshinsky's batteries

were installed in the EV1.

The first version
of the EV1 had defective
Delco batteries in them,

and they kept failing.

So, that was GM's failure
on those batteries.

Once they put
good batteries in,

they didn't
have any problems.

SHEEN: Ultimately,
GM sold its share
in Ovshinsky's company

to an unlikely buyer.

DOUG KORTHOF: Then when
the nickel metal hydride
batteries were improved,

so that they're now
lasting longer than
the life of the car

and cheaper than an engine,

Chevron Texaco stepped in
and purchased control
from General Motors

of Ovshinsky technology.

The oil companies
do not feel threatened
by battery technology

because they effectively
crushed it.

The electric car's kind of
an interesting case study.

I mean, it--it--it was
such an abysmal failure

that I think there
are a lot of people involved
in the initial decision-making

trying to, pointing fingers
at--at whose responsibility
it is.

MAN ON TV: To Basra
and all Iraq comes good news

with the opening
of a new oil field.

The pipeline
runs across the desert
to the Persian Gulf at Faw.

There, tankers load up
with the precious fuel
the world needs so badly.

Yes, it's a big day for Iraq,
and there's a feast
to celebrate.

Sheep stuffed with rice
and a host of other
good things.

But that's only
the first of the good things

that will come to Iraq,
thanks to oil.

SHEEN: Oil companies
have rarely shied away
from global issues.

But why did
they lobby so hard
to build public opposition

to the electric car
in California?

I find it difficult
to rationalize why, um,

the oil industry
got so intimately
involved in this.

Other than maybe
they saw it as a threat

to, uh, what I would call
a monopoly they had

on--on providing
the transportation fuel.

There's no question
that people who, uh,

control the marketplace today,
the oil companies,

have a strong incentive

to discourage alternatives,

uh, except the alternatives
that they themselves control.

And, you know,
just as General Motors

40, 50 years ago bought up
the trolley systems
and shut them down,

uh, the oil companies
have opposed

the creation of an electric
infrastructure.

I--I differ strongly
with that.

We--We did not k-kill
the electric car.

The petroleum industry did not
kill the electric car.

What killed the electric car
was antiquated technology.

It's a good example,
and it's something
that we should not repeat,

an example that
we need to avoid.

RIPPEL: There's still
roughly a trillion barrels

worth of oil
in the Earth's crust.

And if you figure
that the average price

of that subsequent oil
will be $100 a barrel,

that's $100 trillion worth
of business yet to be done.

However, at some point,
when an alternative
is good enough,

people will snap over,

uh, and that's what
the oil companies
fear the most.

KORTHOF: We use
280 million gallons of
gasoline a week in California.

Right now,
the price is $2.20.

Well, a year ago,
it was-- it was $1.20.

Okay, there's a dollar
more a gallon.

Somebody's making
$280 million more
a week this year.

It's the same gas,
the same pipeline,
the same refineries.

The profits are outstanding.

RIPPEL: What the oil companies
feared

is that electric vehicles
would--would become successful

six years from now.

What the automobile
companies feared

was that they'd
be losing money
on electric vehicles

in the next six months.

SHEEN: Even as car companies
made electric cars,

they fought them
at every step.

What was their motive?

Why were they so determined
to take them off the road?

I mean,
I think in the beginning,

General Motors didn't believe
the car was gonna catch on.

I don't think they thought
they'd ever have to worry
about something

like a conspiracy
to keep it from happening.

They hated the mandate.

They hated it so much
that they ended up
not even really wanting

to be in the business
of EVs.

What I frankly detected
was a huge resentment
about being told

what type of motor vehicle
had to be made.

And it became
a fight of principle
rather than one of trying

to actually technologically
solve the problem.

I do know that,
uh, I was surprised
at some of the stances

they took in Sacramento
in arguing.

End of comment.

SHEEN: In a confidential
1995 memo,

the American Automobile
Manufacturers Association

sought to hire a PR firm
to manage a so-called

"grassroots and
educational campaign"

to create a climate
to repeal the mandate.

The challenge,
according to the document,

was "greater
consumer acceptance
of electric vehicles."

Why would
the car companies campaign

so hard against
their own creation?

I made the case
at the General Motors Board

that the reason for the EV1
was to give General Motors

a very big head start
in how you transform
electricity

into the drive power
for the car.

And we give them two,
three years lead,

and in my judgment it did.

But my frustration was
they did not capitalize
on the lead.

And the reason, which
was discussed at the Board,

was that there was not
a profit seen to be coming out

of either electric cars
or hybrids.

They could not understand
how Toyota could possibly
make a profit

out of the Prius,
for example.

They were gonna
lose their shirt.

And as evidence have shown,

I don't think Toyota
is losing their shirt.

SHEEN: If loss of revenue
worried car companies,

then the electric car posed
another problem altogether.

It had no internal
combustion engine,

the cornerstone
of the auto industry.

These parts
represent a large part
of a dealership's income

through the, uh,
the replacement
and the maintenance.

CHELSEA: Essentially,
this group of parts

is a visual representation
of the profits

that the auto industry
doesn't make
when they sell an EV1

or an EV in general.

I can actually
identify a lot of these

that didn't get used
on the EV1 program.

You know, oil filters
you need four times a year.

That was probably
the most prominent thing,

along with the several
quarts of oil every time.

I didn't enjoy working on
an internal combustion engine,

just due to the fact
you got so dirty.

And working on the EV1,
I'd basically go home
looking like this.

Uh, servicing the EV1
was, uh, pretty simple.

It came in about
every 5,000 miles.
We'd put it in the air,

we'd, uh, rotate the tires,

add washer fluid to it
and send it back out
on the street.

It's amazing.
Look how dirty I've gotten
just in handling this stuff.

It's kind of sad.

CHELSEA: In order to sincerely
market a clean car,

you have to suggest that
your core product is dirty

and that it uses oil
and that it uses gas

and that it increases
our dependence
on foreign oil.

And here's this product
that doesn't.

It looks very schizophrenic,
but I think when it started,
it...

W-We can show the people
in California

we can meet the zero-emission
requirements.

And later on say,
"Do we want to show them
that we can meet it?"

That means all
of our other cars...

But the more it caught on,
the more that
there was this dichotomy

between clean and efficient
and nonpolluting
versus a Suburban.

SHEEN: Car companies
had convinced themselves

that they could not
make money in the short term
with the electric car.

In order to do that,
they would need
an entirely different vehicle.

TOM EVERHEART: General Motors
made a commitment
to the Hummer

because they could see
the Hummer
would make them money.

When the SUVs first came out,
people were like,
"I can't drive that."

"What? That big old thing?"
Especially ladies.
"That's a tank!"

"I can't see out of that."
"I'm gonna murder
somebody in that."

"That's too big."
"That's too big for me."

But they convinced people.
"This is safer."
"You need this car."

"You need a big car."
"This is a safer car."

"You need this
for your family."
"Bigger, safer."

The idea of a, uh,
of a penny-pinching EV1
that was super green,

you know, that didn't
get a lot of attraction.

Whereas the idea
of a gigantic, uh, SUV

that would, you know,
crush your neighbor,

that did get
a lot of attraction.

Basically, that tells us
what the '90s was about.

LESLEY STAHL:
What began as a $25,000
tax break grew to $100,000

when Congress passed
the President's economic
stimulus package last spring.

We think small businesses
need to have support
at this time

to keep them afloat,
to keep the economy
moving ahead.

But there's an encouragement
for the small business person,

not just to stay afloat,
but to go buy

the biggest gas guzzler
there is.

The 6,000-pound car,
the biggest.

Does that make sense?

I--I don't think
we can-- we can dictate
what vehicles people buy.

I think the goal here is...
This is encouraging them.

I mean, you can almost
buy the whole car
for the tax break.

Well, I-- I'm not
gonna concede that

that would be the way
these would be used
or that...

Well,
there's some evidence that
is how they're being used.

Well, I don't know.
We'll have to wait
and see what--what happens.

* My Maserati does 185

* I lost my license

* Now I don't drive

* Lucky I'm sane
after all I've been through

* I'm cool

* He's cool

* I can't complain
but sometimes I still do

* Life's been good to me
so far *

I don't want to see Hummers
driven off the market
by the government.

I--I want to see
everything given
a--a level, equal chance.

The thing that
bothers me is that--that,

in fact, it's not a level,
equal chance.

We're using our military
to ensure the flow of oil.

We-- We're using tax dollars
to support the car companies
in different ways,

and we're not using
our--our t-tax money

to do the things
that we really need to do

to prepare for the future.

SHEEN: Federal policy
has always had tremendous
power to shape the future.

As it gave enormous incentives
to buy SUVs,

the federal government
also sued California
to stop the electric car.

Some pointed
to the influence of
the oil and auto industries.

FREEMAN: They control
things in Washington,

they and the automobile
industry.

Now they've got Andy Card,

their former lobbyist
right there as Chief of Staff
in the White House.

And I guess they don't
have to pay lobbyists
anymore.

Uh, so, they're saving
a little money there.

SHEEN: Andrew Card
was Chief of Staff

when the Bush
administration joined
the suit against California.

Card had also been
president and CEO

of the American Automobile
Manufacturers Association

during its campaign
to kill California's
electric car mandate.

Industries began to see
if we don't kill this cancer
in California,

it's going to spread
to the rest of the country.

And I think it became
a strategy, um, on the part
of many companies

to--to make it
a national issue.

I was even told once
by a very prominent
congressman,

who I shall not
mention by name,

that, "I can understand
and tolerate

"uh, what you're doing
in California,

"but if you ever try to spread
your California program

"to the rest of my country,
I'm going to have to do
battle with you."

Sometimes I listen
to the energy debate,

and I think I'm watching
an old movie,

uh, that was made
back in the '70s.

Because the discussion
is exactly the same
as it was 30 years ago.

JOSEPH ROMM:
Our average vehicle,
average car on the road,

is less efficient
than it was 20 years ago.

And this is just a complete
abdication of leadership.

Political leadership, really.

Uh, because it's impossible
to get fuel economy standards

passed through
the US Congress.

SHEEN: After the OPEC
oil embargo in the 1970s,

the US government created
Corporate Average
Fuel Economy,

or CAFE standards,
to improve fuel economy
in American vehicles.

As a result,
in less than 10 years

fuel economy increased
by more than 50%.

Unfortunately,
two decades later

there has been
virtually no change.

Jimmy Carter
was the last president

that really made, uh,
energy, uh, a high priority.

And he devoted
his first 90 days in office

to putting together
an energy plan.

Uh, I was there
as part of it.

And no president
since then has put
that kind of effort into it.

I am tonight
setting a clear goal

for the energy policy
of the United States.

Beginning this moment,
this nation will never use

more foreign oil
than we did in 1977.
Never.

FREEMAN: There was
just a radical change
when Ronald Reagan came in

and took down the solar panels
off the White House roof
that Jimmy had put up

and essentially declared
war on the sun.

I put a freeze
on pending regulations
and set up a task force

under Vice President Bush
to review regulations

with an eye toward
getting rid of as
many as possible.

I have decontrolled oil
which should result
in more domestic production

and less dependence
on foreign oil.

When Reagan came in,
he was not a supporter
of fuel economy,

of conservation,
of renewables.

And in the mid 1980s,
he basically stopped
any improvements

in fuel economy standard
for cars.

And then in 1985,
the price of oil collapsed.

I would not lay
all of the blame

at Ronald Reagan's feet,
by any means.

Um, I think he had his
share of responsibility,
but so did the Saudis

who made the very
calculating decision

to drop the price
of oil dramatically,

principally,
to ensure that none
of these alternative fuels

and--and energy-saving
measures

really produced
the desired results.

So they kept
the junkie hooked up,
in other words.

And as a result,
we are today
still addicted to oil.

When Clinton came in,
and I worked for Clinton,

we were definitely
quite interested

in trying to, uh,
come up with alternatives

and--and improve
the fuel economy, the fleet.

Politically, it was
still very unattractive.

The automobile lobby
was quite powerful then,

so the administration
kind of made

a bargain
with the automobile companies,

this partnership for a new
generation of vehicles

where we would
develop hybrid vehicles,

a combination
of a gasoline engine
and an electric drive train.

In return,
we wouldn't really pursue
fuel economy standards.

I never met
a five-year-old kid
like this in my life.

When I shook hands
with him, he said,

"I'm glad to meet you,
Mr. President.

"I want you to make a car
that runs on electricity
and doesn't pollute the air."

I was so impressed,
I went to get Al Gore,

and I introduced him
to this five-year-old boy.

And he said,
"Hello, Mr. Vice President.

"I intend to spend
my life working on this."

And he said,
"I am going to help you
develop an electric car

"that has no pollution."

And he, Al Gore says,
"That means we're
gonna be partners."

He said, "Yes, I guess so.

"But you don't understand.
I'm going to spend
my whole life on this."

(CROWD LAUGHING)

For 8-9 years, we've spent
about a billion dollars
of the taxpayers' money

to develop hybrid vehicles.

And ironically,
the US car companies

didn't put any hybrids
on the road.

And in fact,
the minute George Bush
got elected President,

the US car companies
walked away from hybrids.

But, and this is the irony,

the US program
got the Japanese very nervous.

So Toyota and Honda,
in response,
developed hybrids,

'cause they didn't wanna
be beaten by the US.

Now, they lure
people into thinking
they're doing something

by their sweet talk,

but I remember
way back yonder,
they used to have this joke.

And it's not a joke, anymore.

We're giving
the environmentalists
the music,

and the industry the action.

The second step
toward making America
less dependent on foreign oil

is to produce and refine
more crude oil here at home

in environmentally
sensitive ways.

By far the most promising
site for oil in America

is the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

SHEEN: While it is predicted
that the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge

could supply America
with slightly more

than one year's
supply of oil,

simply raising
fuel economy standards
to 40 miles per gallon

could save the same amount
of fuel within 15 years.

FREEMAN: The oil industry
and the automobile companies
are resistant to change.

The American people
need to be reminded

that it took a law
to get seatbelts
in the cars.

It took a law to get
airbags in the cars.

It took a law
to get the mileage up

from 12 to 20 miles
per gallon.

It took a law to get
catalytic converters
to control the pollution.

And I think clean cars
are too important to be left
to the automobile industry.

SHEEN: The California mandate
forced automakers to make
electric cars.

When California changed it,
the cars vanished.

Why did California retreat
from the bold law it created?

Uh, having visited all
the car companies,
they were saying,

"Well, look, we can't produce
these increasing numbers

"of the battery
electric vehicles."

And I became
convinced that...

What are we
supposed to do here?
Is our job to clean the air?

Or is it to force
a certain number

of a type of technology
on the road?

ALEC BROOKS: Alan Lloyd, uh,
failed in his leadership
to--to really steer

the Zero Emission
Vehicle Mandate toward
a--a successful outcome.

Oh, I know Alec very well.
WOMAN: And, you know...

I know Alec very well.
And we had some...

We had some, uh, heartfelt,
uh, m-memos going back
and forth.

And it pained me,
because I have
the utmost respect for Alec.

And it really pained me
to be--be, uh, accused

of, uh, basically abandoning,
uh, the battery electrics.

SHEEN: In addition
to his role as Chairman
of the Air Resources Board,

Alan Lloyd had
another position.

Just four months
before the meeting
that killed the electric car,

Lloyd accepted
the chairmanship

of the California
Fuel Cell Partnership.

LLOYD: I've been
involved with hydrogen
since the early '90s.

When I became chair
of ARB 10 years later,
I knew a lot about hydrogen.

So for me,
I'm very much fact,
technology-driven.

And so maybe
you could say
that's an asset

or a handicap
in terms of hydrogen,

because I--I--I knew
what--what--what
could be done.

Excuse me here while
I watch my little baby
get off here.

SHEEN: Carmakers
convinced California

that the facts
supported the development

of hydrogen
fuel cell vehicles.

Were they a better
option than electric cars?

Toyota's National Manager
of Advanced Technologies,
Bill Reinert,

took their prototype
hydrogen fuel cell SUV
on a press tour.

One of our customers
really didn't like this car

anywhere near
as much as his EV1.

And the reason was not
because it had anything
b-bad about the car,

the reason was because
his EV1,

he could charge it at home,
charge it at work,

and even though
it provided limited range,

uh, he didn't have
to worry about getting
his car charged up.

With this car,
with the limited access

to a hydrogen
filling station,

he said he'd spend
his whole day planning

on how to get
hydrogen in the car
and how to get back.

It's really humbling.
It's-- It's...

The--The more you know,
the more you r-realize

you really don't know
what the issues are
gonna be going forward.

The number one
worst question is,

"When can...
When will that
be on the market?"

When will that
be on the market?

That-- That's the worst
question.

Consumers are probably
going to want to know
how long it would be

for this to be mass-produced.

REINERT: That's quite
a ways off.

We've got some
real technical issues

we've got to solve
with hydrogen storage,

with durability,
with cost reduction.

Is it a practical
solution at this point?

The cars have
a limited range,

the durability
of the cars isn't very good

and the, uh...
Let me see, what else?

Oh, they don't do well
in cold weather.

Other than that,
they're great.

Have you ever been
to a dog race?

You know there's
the mechanical rabbit
that's out in front,

and the dogs
never quite reach it.

Well, the fuel cell
is the equivalent
of that mechanical rabbit.

We're going for it.

For the last 15 years
they've been telling us

the fuel cells
are 10 to 15 years off.

RIPPEL: You're an oil company.
Your business is to be selling
a fuel.

They think that it's
a long time off, 30 years,

uh, and they want
to have a product
to sell.

So from that point,
they're protecting themselves,

but the other side
is they're protecting
the status quo.

We see in Scientific American

a--a double-page ad
by General Motors
and Shell, both,

touting both the fuel cell
that General Motors is doing

and also Shell as a potential
supplier of hydrogen.

If hydrogen can do
a better job as an energy
carrier than electricity,

then, by gosh,
it should be the--
the carrier of choice.

The problem is,
it's not even close.

How far will this car ride
on that amount of fuel?

Uh, it gets approximately
about, uh, maybe, about
100-125 miles.

Good. Interesting.

SHEEN: A fuel cell car
powered by hydrogen,
made with electricity,

uses three to four
times more energy

than a car
powered by batteries.

This is the beginning
of some fantastic technology,

and, uh, thanks
for having us out here.

We're gonna look at some
other vehicles in a minute,

but, uh, you know hydrogen
is the wave of the future.

ROMM: Today, there's a lot of
enthusiasm for hydrogen cars.

But, you know,
I wrote a whole book,
The Hype About Hydrogen.

I think it's pretty
clear that hydrogen

is a much tougher
alternative fuel

than any other
alternative fuel
we've ever pursued.

So, these are the five
miracles that you need

for a successful hydrogen car
in the marketplace.

First,
your average hydrogen car
costs a million dollars.

That's gotta drop.

Second, uh, no known
material to humankind

can store enough
hydrogen onboard the car

to give you the range
people want.

Miracle number three
is the fuel is wildly
expensive.

Even hydrogen
from dirty fossil fuels

is 2 or 3 times
more expensive
than gasoline.

Fourth, you have to have
the fueling infrastructure.

You know,
we have 180,000 gas stations.

Someone's gonna
have to build at least

10,000 or 20,000
hydrogen fueling stations

before anybody
is gonna be very interested.

And miracle five
is you have to hope and pray

that the competitors
in the marketplace
don't get any better,

because right now,
uh, the best car
in the marketplace

just got a lot better,
the hybrid vehicle.

Still runs on gasoline,
you can fuel it everywhere,

it has twice the range
of a regular car.

SHEEN: Current hybrid
vehicles depend on gasoline,

but use an electric motor
to increase their fuel
economy.

ROMM: And if battery
technology keeps getting
steadily better,

then the best hybrid
and then plug-in hybrid
in the year 2020

will be vastly superior
to the best hydrogen car.

You guys have filmed me
long enough

to know that, you know,
I like to hear myself talk,

number one, and number two,
that I'm not gonna dance
around the issue.

And--And-- this could be
a long ways out
into the future.

Toyota says, "Fuel cell cars,
30 years away." Okay.

Then I get
the calls from the DOE
and the State of California

and, "What in the hell
you doing?"

And all the other
fuel cell manufacturers,

"You know we're trying
to make a living here
and you're saying this."

Oh, it's awful.

Just because a lot of
people want it to work,
it's no guarantee.

That's Disneyland, you know.
Wishing makes it come true.

So, um, I don't work
in Disneyland.

I work in the real world
where wishing
doesn't make it come true,

and you really gotta work
hard to make it come true.
Hopefully we do.

SHEEN: On the 27th day
of their vigil,

activists finally
heard from GM.

Paul Scott calls,
"Are you guys busy?

"They're-- They're-- They-re
calling in the cars right now.

"GM is loading the cars
on trucks right now!"

We're like, "What? What?

"Well, yeah,
we'll drop everything

"and run on down there
right now."

A media blast is going on
out there.

Okay.

Both are closed.

They loaded them up,
you know,

tires screeching
and panels cracking
against each other

as they shoved them
onto the trucks.

FREEMAN: We're up against most
of the money in the world.

We're up against
the oil industry,
the automobile industry.

It's David versus Goliath
in a very big way,

but if there are enough
David's in the world,
we can win.

* Forever

GM, shame on you!

(SHOUTING)

General Motors is sneaking
the EV1s out of here,

destroying them,

doing the work
of the oil companies.

And what we're
gonna ask you guys

is just to give us maybe,
just to the grass here.

If you could just get out
of the driveway for us,

so that we don't have to put
any hands on anybody.
Thank you.

Don't crush the EV1.

SHEEN: On March 15th, 2005,

the last EV1s
in the Burbank lot

were taken away
and destroyed.

All right, well, come on in.
Cool.

We'll go down to the vault,
and I'll show you the car.

(EXCLAIMING)

I miss this little car.

Yeah. We love having it.

We have a number
of electric vehicles

in the collection
and hybrids,

but we're especially
happy about this.

This is the special one.

There she is.

My baby!

Number 99.

(KENDALL CHUCKLING)

You might recognize
this car.

I do. It was Chris' car.

Sure was.

Please, have a seat.

There's only one challenge.
It doesn't start up.

(LAUGHING)

Well, you know that, um,
General Motors disabled them.

I know.
We wish they didn't,
but they had to.

So, we understand that.
We're just happy to have it.

Yeah.

It is such an important part
of automotive history.

It is. Except...
To have it manufactured

by General Motors...
Participate in this program.
It's wonderful.

The thing is it shouldn't
be a part of automotive
history.

Ever since 1939,
they would dangle
this electric car.

They'd have a few
models out there.

They'd say there's something
in another few years.

And it never came
because they never
intended it to come.

They make too much money
with their technological
stagnation

in the internal
combustion engine.

If something becomes scarce,
then there's economic
pressures

to find alternatives.

And as along
as no alternatives exist

the scarce item can become
increasingly profitable.

These are the same batteries
that are used
in your laptop computer.

We have 6,800 cells.

And it can go 300 miles
on one charge,

running about 70 miles
an hour.

Now it's zero to 60
in 3.6 seconds.

So, it's a really
amazing performance

for any car,
not just an electric car.

Those same batteries could be
put in the EV1

and make it a 300-mile
range car very easily.

So, it's such a shame
seeing these cars destroyed
when you can upgrade them.

I know what I did
and why I did it.

And if I had to do
the same thing again
based on the data,

and I've seen
what's happened to date,

I would do exactly
the same thing.

For most Americans,
when you talk about
a sensible energy policy,

what most people hear is,
"You're gonna make me
drive a small car,

"you're gonna make me
keep my house cold,

"and essentially
you're gonna make me
live like a European."

It's a lack of leadership.

It's a lack of being able
to take on the oil industry

and the automobile industry
and recognize that
they are not Uncle Sam.

Uncle Sam has to be Uncle Sam,

and Uncle Sam is acting
like they're General Motors.

They are squandering
huge amounts of money

on hydrogen cars,
which by any
reasonable estimate

are not going to be selling
in the consumer market

for two decades
at the earliest.

And I think
it will go down as
one of the biggest blunders

in the history
of the automotive industry.

Have you never
heard that expression,
"Death by a million cuts"?

Little tiny cuts,
eventually someone
will bleed to death.

SHEEN: The fight over
electric cars was,

quite simply,
a fight about the future.

Goliath won this round,

but now Goliath
has new problems.

Oil prices have soared.

America is further entangled
in the Middle East,

and global warning
is an increasingly
serious threat.

What can we do
to reshape the future?

STANFORD OVSHINSKY: This city
is replete with famous names
that are no longer here.

Why? Because they couldn't
adapt to change.

We all have to
adapt to change.

Don't debate about
who's to blame or
what to blame.

Let's build new industries.

Let's make America
strong again.

SHEEN: Chelsea continues
her work with a new group
called Plug In America,

working with citizens
across the political spectrum

to promote an independent
energy future.

You know, I met Jim Woolsey
at an event,
and as it turns out

he was already a bit of a fan
of stuff that we were doing,

and he's come to work
with Plug In America.

That's one example
of the types

of relationships
that have to exist

in order to further
what we all want.

I've served in four,
uh, administrations in
the presidential appointments,

all in different
aspects of national security.

And the fact that
two thirds of the world's
proven reserves of oil

are in the Middle East,
and we're so dependent
on that part of the world,

is a very big
national security question.

Well, behind me
there are two things.

One is a Prius hybrid
gasoline-electric, uh, Toyota

and an electrical substation.

Today they don't have much
to do with one another,

but there's a chance
that they might be able

to have something
to do with one another
in a positive way.

And that's where I think
the plug-in hybrid
is the natural next step,

and that is available
to us today.

HANSSEN: This is a plug-in
hybrid Prius,

which is a modification
to a normal Toyota Prius

that allows you to travel...

Which gives you up to 150,
180 miles per gallon

for the first 50
to 60 miles of the day.

We don't need an expensive
charging infrastructure
to use this car.

You can just plug it in
anywhere in your garage.

So we make
the environmentalists happy
because it's cleaner.

We make the, uh,
neo-conservatives happy

because it uses
less gasoline.

Well, everyone's happy
because it uses
less gasoline.

SHEEN: Plugging in
could go a long way

to reducing our dependence
on oil.

And generating
that electricity
with the wind and the sun

would create
even less pollution.

With his battery technology
in most hybrid cars,

Ovshinsky has also built
one of the largest thin-film
solar factories in the world.

This is just
an ordinary steel roof.

And this is with the adhesive.

You just put
the shingles down,
nail them down.

You're in there.
You've run your wires down.
Everything is plug and play.

Anybody who wants
to make a revolution
shouldn't grab a gun.

Just go and start
working like we do

to change the world
by using science
and technology.

I am so optimistic
about the future.

I mean, even given everything
that we've seen,
and all of the EV wars,

I remain an optimist.

NEIL: One of the things
that makes America work

is this rampant
grassroots agitation

for things that are new.

When you get
a coalition of that size
and that surprising character,

you get politicians'
attention.

And here we have
a serious problem,

America is addicted to oil.

And I call all this
a potential coalition
between the tree huggers,

the do-gooders,
the sodbusters,

the cheap hawks
and the evangelicals.

That's a pretty
good size coalition.

We are about
to enter into a world

that's truly renewable
and completely clean,

if we just have the willpower
to implement it.

Well, you don't have to wait
for major auto companies
to do it.

You can do it yourself,
like what I'm doing here.

Old cars, new cars,
doesn't really matter.
I can convert anything.

You haven't
seen anything yet.

The future is going to be
very bright in this area,

and the forces
are all pushing
in that direction,

both the economic
and technological forces.

So, you know,
once people see these things,

they say,
"Wow, I want to do this."

And so the word
is getting out.

STANFORD: That gives us hope.

Hope that we can
end up our lives

having achieved
what we set out to do.

And we have.

And you still have
so many more years
you want to do things.

I wouldn't have enough time.

I've-- I am shooting
without dice right now so...

* Who knows what tomorrow
will bring?

* Maybe sunshine
and maybe rain

* But as for me,
I'll wait and see

* And maybe it'll bring
my love to me

* Who knows, who knows

* Who knows any better than I

* That it's she
who's keeping me alive

* Keeping the little girl
as my goal

* Makes my life worth living,
you know

* Another day, another day

* Just another day
I wanna live

* To share the love
that only she can give

* And if she don't
come on home

* I pray the Lord
will help me carry on

* Another day, another day

* Just another day
Oh, Lord

* Another day, another day

* Just another day
I wanna live

* To share the love
that only she can give

* And if she don't
come on home

* I pray the Lord
will help me carry on

* Another day, another day

* Just another day
Oh, Lord

* For who knows
what tomorrow will bring

* Maybe sunshine
and maybe rain

* But as for me,
I'll wait and see *

* Realize

* The greatest love

* We are

* The only ones

* We are

* So young

* Nothing

* To fear

* This

* Is forevermore

* Realize

* The greatest love

* We are

* So young

* Nothing to fear

* Don't look down

* Do what you feel

* Feel how you move

* Don't look back

* We are alone

(WOMAN CONTINUES SINGING)

* We are so young