The documentary Who Killed The Electric Car? will screen in Whangarei next month, and one of the film's key players - Californian Chelsea Sexton - will be there to talk about the future of electric vehicles (EVs).
It is 20 years since EVs - quiet, fast and producing zero tailpipe emissions - began appearing on Californian roads, and Ms Sexton, working for General Motors (GM) to promote the EV1, was in the thick of what many thought would be a revolution in clean transport.
The documentary at Northpower's headquarters at Mt Pleasant Rd, Raumanga, on July 10, marks 10 years since GM repossessed and crushed, in the Arizona desert, the last of its EV1s that had been leased to enthusiasts, including movie stars Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson and film director Francis Ford Coppola.
Who Killed The Electric Car? treats the mass-crushing of the EV1 as a crime and examines a list of suspects, including the car-making industry, Big Oil and politicians. The movie swept Ms Sexton to fame and she remains an ardent advocate of EVs. She travelled through Northland in April as part of the Leading the Charge Road Trip, promoting the uptake of EVs in New Zealand, and chatted with locals during stops at Kaeo, Paihia and Kawakawa, then spent a whole day in Whangarei.
The movie will be screened at Northpower at 2pm, followed by a Q&A session involving Ms Sexton, but at midday there will be test rides in EVs and a Channel North documentary on EVs in Northland, commissioned by Northpower and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.
