those batteries never seem to run outta collusion>
Batteries
In a bit of an unexpected turn, the film's sole "not-guilty" suspect is batteries, one of the chief culprits if you asked the oil or auto industries. At the time GM's EV1 came to market, it came with a lead acid battery with a range of 60 miles. The film suggests that since the average driving distance of Americans in a day is 30 miles or less and so for 90% of Americans, electric cars would work as a daily commute car or second car. The second generation EV1 (and those released by Honda, Toyota, and others) from 1998 to the end of the program, featured nickel-metal or even lithium (Nissan) batteries with a ranges of about 100 or more miles. The film documents that the company who had supplied batteries for EV1 (Ovonics) had been suppressed from announcing improved batteries (with doubled ranges) lest CARB be influenced that batteries were improving. And later, General Motors sold the supplier's majority control share to Chevron/Cobasys. As part of the not-guilty verdict, the famed engineer Alan Cocconi explains that with laptop computer lithium ion batteries, the EV1 could have been upgraded to a range of 300 miles per charge. He makes this point in front of his T-Zero prototype, the car that inspired the Tesla Roadster
