Who Killed the Electric Car?

A few weeks ago, I was in my attorney friend's office, and he had a box full of the above-mentioned DVD.  As a person who loves cars, I had wanted to see this documentary, but never got around to it.  He kindly gave me one, and I finally watched it.  It really made me sad and mad that a company like GM created a car such as the EV1 to satisfy a California clean air mandate, but after the mandate was lifted, GM repossessed all of the cars (they were leased), and had them crushed. The EV1 was a futuristic-looking two-seater that ran purely on electricity and was virtually maintenance-free.  They were leased through a Saturn dealership in Los Angeles in the the mid-1990's, and the people who leased them (including celebrities Mel Gibson and Tom Hanks) were surprised at all the hoops they had to jump through to attain one.  Mel Gibson had to write a detailed biography about himself before he was allowed to take delivery.  In the end, it was concluded that the car companies and the oil companies, among others, were responsible for removing almost all of the electric cars from California streets, in the interest of protecting profits. Now, as Obama takes the helm, attention is again turned to cleaning up our air and our environment.  GM has developed another electric car, the Volt, this time, a family sedan that goes 40 miles on one charge.  Compare that with the 120 miles or so that the EV1 used to go, and it seems like GM is moving backwards.  At least they are re-visiting the idea of an electric car as a viable profit-generating product.  Hopefully, this time around, they won't repeat their mistakes.