Title: Revenge of the Electric Car Director: Chris Paine Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Studio: WestMidWest Productions Genre(s): Documentary Rated:       (For brief strong language)

CONSUMER ADVICE

Parents, there is one minor use of the f-word. Recommended for ages 10 and up.

I just filled up my gas tank to a 2010 Toyota Corolla. To fill it up, it cost me $37.34. A couple of years ago, it might have cost under $30. But gas prices keep going up and show no signs of going down. It would be nice to have an electric car, but as we all saw in “Who Killed the Electric Car?” that was just not going to happen. General Motors used the electric car to buy time while they fought mandate laws, and then in a devastating scene destroyed them all when there was no more use for that. But ho boy, it's amazing how times change things. Now more people want electric cars than ever before, and gas is becoming a burden on the car industry.

If you want proof of that, then look no further than Bob Lutz, who is spearheading General Motors second electric vehicle named Volt, which he hopes, will sell two million vehicles in three years. This is saying something since in the last film, he was the bad guy, being the one to pull the plug on the EV1 himself. Now he's one of the good guys, realizing that electric cars are the way of the future (but not willing to go as far as to say that global warming is real). He's not alone either. The CEO of Nissan (Carlos Ghosn) is building his own electric car called the Leaf. Does he believe the future is electric cars? Eh, he's not sure. He just knows one thing: If it is, he wants to be there first.

Another person who wants to be there first is Elon Musk, who is trying to not only create a stylish electric vehicle, he's trying to start the first new major car company in Telsa. He has a head start though: He created PayPal and sold it to eBay, so he knows a thing or two about business. The problem all these men face is the economy. The irony with all this is that despite the economic need for an electric car, people just can't afford to get one. Even the government ends up bailing out General Motors (a move that actually does turn the company around).

Director Chris Paine is well aware that it will take years for electric cars to really take off. There's still the issue of the battery not going as far as gas does and how long it takes to charge that battery. He knows change is coming though. If gas prices go above $5 next year, I think people will end up substituting monthly gas bill for a monthly car payment on an electric car. Here's some food for thought: The average charge for an electric car is $0.73 per mile. “Revenge of the Electric Car” indeed.