Video Reflection

“Who Killed the Electric Car?” a film written and directed by Chris Paine. Actually, this film is a case study in how the profit system has interfered with the rational use of technology to prevent global warming, fight air pollution, and adopt sustainable sources of energy. The film successfully reveals how, in collusion with the auto industry and oil companies, the federal government and the CARB betrayed the long-term interests of the American people in order to cater to the short-term profitability of big corporations.

The first part of the documentary talks about the identification of finding a sustainable solution to petrol cars which released heavy amounts of smog and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere causing serious problems for humans and lead to global warming and the melting of ice caps. As we all know since our resources are very limited, the price of fuel is getting higher and higher. However, we still really need them and this is becoming a major problem in our society. That is why we need to look for sustainable options for fuel. Also we should find an alternative to petrol car. After getting the reasons, many car manufactures such as Nissan, Toyota and GM tried to deal with this problem with the concept of an electric-powered car. However, it soon died out. This film points out some interviews from celebrities who owned the electric car and their opinions of it at the moment. Sine petrol car is mass manufactured and cost of petrol is lower than that of electricity. In addition, this film is to justify and argue the death of the electric car but not only did it do that, it also branched out the spoke about other hybrid cars that may have been in the process of development at the time.

Sine taking this electric car as an example, the electric broke this kind of game rules. Even when a lot of people support it, the rules would not be changed by this single product. So if every designer get involved about this kink of environment-friendly design then we will not need this kink of rules anymore. Furthermore, this might encourage people to do design more sustainable products. And as a industrial design student, this is more important to aim ourself. We are not designing products to get incomes, we are designing products to help people, help our world.