Read our exclusive interview with director Chris Paine, who helmed the upcoming documentary ‘Revenge of the Electric Car,’ which is set to hit select theaters on October 21, 2011. The film goes behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM, the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors and independent car converter Greg “Gadget” Abbott to chronicle the resurgence of electric cars. The movie shows how almost every major car maker is jumping at the chance to produce new electronic models, a mere five years after the companies were destroying them. Paine discusses with us, among other things, why he decided to chronicle the revival of the electric car, and how the public’s opinion on the car has changed over the past 15 years.
ShockYa (SY): Your new documentary ‘Revenge of the Electric Car’ tells the story of the global resurgence of electric cars. Why did you decide to chronicle this revival?
Chris Paine (CP): I think after we finished ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?,’ we were shocked to begin to hear that the electric car might be coming back from the dead, as it were. The audio industry crushed about 5,000 electric cars in California in those days. They were all against it in California, (saying) it will never work. Suddenly you began hearing rumors that GM was going to do it, Nissan was going to do it, Ford was looking at it again. We thought this might be one of those moments where we can go and capture this huge global industry in the middle of a change. Since we had a connection from the first film, we started to work through everyone that we knew for this movie.
SY: ‘Revenge of the Electric Car’ goes behind the closed doors of Nissan and GM. What was the process like in getting the companies’ executives to agree to have their brands appear in the movie?
CP: The process was that I have two terrific producers (P.G. Morgan and Jessie Deeter). We began e-mailing with people we knew in the business. I eventually met (Tesla Motors’ head) Elon Musk, and he said “Okay, I’ll let you in to chronicle us doing this.” Once we had Tesla involved, we were able to get several other companies involved. We picked the four strongest ones, and told their stories. When I say strongest, I mean four different stories that represented different parts of the industry, so that we can give the audience a three-year, behind-the-scenes of the ups and downs of getting something like this going.
SY: In ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?,’ you showed how, in the mid-1990s, the car companies destructed the electric cars. Why do you think car companies have changed their minds about marketing electric cars?
CP: What made them change their minds was that gasoline had hit $4 a gallon for the first time. A lot of car companies had nothing to sell people. Everyone was paying $100 to fill up their cars or trucks every time they went to the gas station. They said, how come there are only gas cars for sale? Car companies around the world said we have to look at plug-in vehicles, because electricity is about $1 a gallon, that’s the rough cost. We know these cars can perform even better than gas cars in a lot of situations, so we don’t want to be left behind. That was probably the major factor in pushing them forward. Car companies also saw electric cars as a way to green up their brand. They were also receiving a lot of pressure from consumers who were upset.
SY: What is the competition like between the car companies as they compete to develop the most efficient electric car?
CP: I think there’s a lot of competition between the companies to get to the market first, and be the first company with a plug-in car. I think the other competition they had was with themselves. How much money to put into this program, when the electric car was going to make them money, when people were going to be willing to buy them or try them. Our movie looks at why you need credibly charismatic people at the center of anything you’re doing to push things forward.
SY: How do you feel the world’s opinion of the electric car has changed since the mid-’90s?
CP: I think then, 99 percent of people would say, what’s an electric car? I’ve never heard of that. Today, I think a lot more people would say, oh yeah, I’ve heard of that. The thing is, many people haven’t driven one. I hope our film will convince people to go out and test drive one of these cars. Then more and more people can say, yeah, I’ve ridden in one and say, oh, they’re awesome, or no, they’re not for me. Until people have the experience of doing something, I don’t think it really clicks. What clicks is the experience.
SY: Do you feel that electric cars will increase in popularity in the future?
CP: Oh yes, for sure. The higher oil prices get, the more popular electric cars will become. The more experience people have driving them, the more they’ll realize it’s a better operating car than a gasoline car. They’ll have the experience themselves. Finally, we’re likely to run out of oil, we’ll make such a mess out of the environment that electric cars will be the only choice.
SY: ‘Revenge of the Electric Car’ had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Earth Day this year. What was your reaction when you found out it would be playing at the festival?
CP: We were delighted, it’s a terrific festival. We were psyched, we knew a lot of people would see the film, and that we had made something that was worth seeing.
SY: The documentary was narrated by Tim Robbins, and it features Danny Devito, Jon Favreau, Stephen Colbert, Adrian Grenier and Arnold Schwarzenegger. What was the process like in getting them to appear in the film?
CP: Danny Devito was a fan of electric cars, he made a YouTube video about his (GM) EV1 car, so I knew he loved electric cars. Tim Robbins liked the movie a lot, and I knew him through the theater. Adrian Grenier is an activist, and he liked the movie as well. We just made requests, and they said yes. What we didn’t want to do was make a movie about celebrities. We wanted to make a movie about people overcoming obstacles.
SY: Would you be interested in filming more documentaries about electric cars in the future?
CP: Well, I’ll see what happens. I’d be way happier to see more and more people drive electric cars than make more films about them. What I can say is that the electric car revelation is attracting some of the most interesting people in the world. I think there are a lot of stories in that.
Written by: Karen Benardello
