The Smithsonian "Buries" THE KILLING OF THE ELECTRIC CAR? - VIDEO ENHANCED STORY

Museum's strange action heightens conspiracy theory.

LOS ANGELES - June 20, 2006: As the new film "WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?" gets set to open in theaters nationwide, the Smithsonian has added a new chapter to the controversy about why GM and other automakers don't want the public to know that the battery-powered EV1 ever existed.

GM launched its EV1 electric vehicle in 1996. It was a revolutionary modern car, requiring no gas, no oil changes, no mufflers, and rare brake maintenance. A typical maintenance checkup for the EV1 consisted of replenishing the windshield washer fluid and a tire rotation.

Crushed EVs (from film)...Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. All rights reserved.

Six years later, GM removed all of the cars from the market, and crushed its entire fleet of EV-1's in the Arizona desert.

The National Museum of American History has a rare surviving example of that car -- a silvery-blue 1997 EV1 sedan -- which it removed from display yesterday just as interest in the innovative vehicle is growing.

GM, which donated the EV1, is one of the Smithsonian Institution's biggest contributors. A $10 million gift in 2001 paid half the cost of the history museum's new transportation exhibition hall, which was renamed to honor the automaker. But the museum and GM say the EV1 was removed from view with no thoughts of public reaction to the movie or the display.

"WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?" director Chris Paine is not happy that the EV1 was in the museum in the first place. "It's so sad that the EV1 is being portrayed as history," Paine states. "It's not an example of 'failed' technology. It's an example of what the 21st century can be in this country, if we had the willpower to do it. The Smithsonian should take the car out of the museum and put it back on the road."

To visit the film's website and see the movie trailer CLICK HERE

The Smithsonian has no plans to bring the EV1 back on view. When the museum reopens in 2008, one of the most innovative commuter cars ever will be resting in peace in a Suitland storage facility.

By the end of the month, the museum hopes to display a robot-driven off-road vehicle, named Stanley, that won the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's $2 million race in the Nevada desert in October. The winner is a smart-wired Volkswagen Touareg. In the museum, as in life, the EV1 is being displaced by a souped-up SUV.

Sony Pictures Classics will open "WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?" in NY and Los Angeles on June 28th, and nationally in July.

With firsthand accounts from S. David Freeman (former energy advisor to President Jimmy Carter),

John R. Dabels, former GM EV Marketing Director...Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. All rights reserved.

Joseph J. Romm (The Hype About Hydrogen), and a host of former EV1-consumers and advocates including Alan C. Lloyd (Chairman, California Air Resources Board), Paul Roberts (The End of Oil) and Oscar-winning EV-1 driver Mel Gibson. "WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?" paints a compelling and eerily prescient portrait of life in the Age of Oil.

"WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?" A Sony Pictures Classics Release, Directed by Chris Paine, narrated by Martin Sheen and produced by Jessie Deeter with Executive Producers Dean Devlin, Tavin Marin Titus and Richard D. Titus. Rated PG. Running time: 92 minutes.

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