Revenge Of The Electric Car

In 2006, Chris Paine mourned the death of the EV-1 – General Motors’s short-lived electric vehicle – in ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?’. Here, it’s 2010 and Paine finds the automobile industry taking the plug-in car more seriously. He widens his focus to include the rocky birth of Tesla’s Model S, as well as Nissan and GM’s entry (re-entry, in GM’s case) into the market with their Leaf and Volt cars. The techie stuff is light and the mood mostly optimistic, which makes for a slightly bland experience. More entertaining are the characters who emerge from Paine’s impressive access. You could make a whole film about PayPal millionaire and Tesla founder Elon Musk, a fresh-faced oddball who we see awkwardly talking in the company of his wife, actress Talulah Riley (they’re now divorced). Thrusting French Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn is also good fun.