[ausev] WKTEC Press Screen Time and Date

[Mark Farver]

Ok, I have the time and date for the press screening on Monday the 24th 
at 6:30pm. There are no guarentees that any of our members will actually 
get in to see the movie, but the theater general manager said he would 
try to secure a passes for everyone.

Sony has asked for a list of "movers and shakers" in the Austin 
community that they can invite, if anyone has suggestions and email 
address please send them to me off list.

I will not be in town the rest of the week or for the event (sorry).  
Everyone may want to get together this weekend and polish all of the 
details.  A few cars (preferably working so you can take members of the 
press for rides) and materials with background information on our group 
and EVs in general should be the focus.  Feel free to call me on my cell 
if you have any questions (512-587-5639).  Don't forget to dress nice in 
case you end up on camera.

I'll ask the Theater if we can leave any vehicles for the week.

Mark Farver

---snip---

WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?
(Sony Pictures Classics)
6:30pm / Monday, July 24, 2006
REGAL ARBOR @ GREAT HILLS CINEMA

Running  Time: 91 minutes
MPAA Rating - Rated PG for brief mild language.
OPENS AUSTIN @ REGAL ARBOR @ GREAT HILLS July 28, 2006

ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY
    It was among the fastest, most efficient production car ever built. 
It ran on electricity, produced no emissions and catapulted American 
technology to the forefront of the automotive industry. The lucky few 
who drove it never wanted to give it up. So why did General Motors crush 
its fleet of EV-1 electric vehicles in the Arizona desert? WHO KILLED 
THE ELECTRIC CAR? chronicles the life and mysterious death of the EV-1; 
examining the cultural and economic ripple effects caused by its 
conception and how they reverberated through the halls of government and 
big business.

    The year is 1990. California is in a pollution crisis. The smog is 
so bad that the state is on the verge of returning to the haze days of 
the 1970's brown outs. Desperate for a solution, the California Air 
Recourses Board (CARB) targets the source of its problem: Car exhaust. 
Inspired by a recent announcement from General Motors about an electric 
vehicle prototype, the Zero Emissions Mandate (ZEV) is born.

    It requires 2% of California's vehicles to be emission free by 1998, 
10% by 2003. It is the most radical smog fighting mandate since the 
catalytic converter. Eager to satisfy the largest car consuming market 
in the world, GM's EV-1 electric vehicle is launched in 1997 with great 
fanfare from California consumers. It was the first perfect car of the 
modern age, requiring no gas, no oil, no mufflers, and no brake changes 
(a billion dollar industry unto itself.) A typical maintenance checkup 
for the EV-1 consisted of replenishing the windshield washer fluid and a 
tire rotation.

    Fast forward to 6 years later... The fleet is dead. EV charging 
stations dot the California landscape like tombstones, collecting dust 
and spider webs. How could this happen? Did anyone bother to examine the 
bodies? Yes, in fact, someone did. And it was murder. The EV-1 
threatened the status quo; the truth behind its murder closely 
resembling the climactic outcome of Agatha Christie's Murder on the 
Orient Express. Multiple suspects, each taking their turn with the 
knife. Automakers, legislators, engineers, consumers and car enthusiasts 
from Los Angeles to Detroit work through the motives, alibis and fallout 
to piece the complex puzzle together.

    WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? is not just about the EV-1. It's about 
how this allegory for today's oil prices and air quality can also be a 
shining symbol of society's desire to better itself and the world around 
it. For a brief moment in time, we were closer to that dream than we'd 
ever been before, and while that milestone may have been crushed, it has 
not been forgotten.