HispanicBusiness

In the 2006 documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?," director Chris Paine took a highly critical look at General Motors for its role in the demise of the EV1.

What a difference five years can make. Paine is back now with "Revenge of the Electric Car," which opens Friday. It looks at the resurgence of plug-in vehicles by focusing on four key players -- including outspoken former GM vice chairman Bob Lutz, who championed the development of the Chevy Volt.

Paine spent three years traveling to and from Detroit to film Lutz. During that time, he also chronicled Elon Musk, the chief of Tesla Motors; Carlos Ghosn, the head of Nissan, and Greg (Gadget) Abbott, who converts gas-powered cars like Triumph Spitfires to electric vehicles.

This week, Paine talked from San Francisco about the new movie and the cars that have become his muse.

QUESTION: Do you think "Who Killed the Electric Car?" had a role in the rebirth or resurgence of electric cars, or was this inevitable?

ANSWER: I think it's inevitable. What I think our film did -- and a lot of public pressure -- was to help accelerate this a little bit. The surprise was the turnaround on this, how fast it's been, at least in terms of the car companies and their thinking about plug-in vehicles. It's inevitable because oil prices will keep going up over time and electric cars are better performance machines. It's smoother. It's more efficient and more advanced than all of us carrying a portable engine around with us everywhere we go.

Q: Given what you explore in this film, what do you foresee for the future of Detroit automakers?

A: The Volt is being built at the Hamtramck plant. Talking to line workers and managers, I got the feeling that a lot of people feel like the future is on track and that's going to be a good thing for Detroit. Jobs will come back in. I think as we rebuild our automotive fleet over the next 20 years and add plugs to these vehicles, it will really help re-energize our industrial base. I also think that buying everything overseas has peaked and we're going to start regrowing our manufacturing here.

Q: Were you surprised when GM said essentially, "OK, come and follow us around for three years"?

A: After "Who Killed the Electric Car?," we didn't expect to be returning to GM to tell another story about electric cars. But we didn't expect GM to announce they were going to get back into the plug-in business. When Bob Lutz made that announcement, I e-mailed him and said: "If you're going to do this, I would be interested in telling the story." It took GM some time to decide that they were going to let us back in. I was really glad they did. A lot of other car companies turned us down. I give GM a lot of credit for stepping up and taking the risk with us, considering they would have no editorial control of this film and considering what my last movie was about. I don't know how the management made that decision internally, but I'm glad they did. I think it portrays a good story of change happening from inside the system.

Q: What was Bob Lutz like as a character for the movie?

A: Bob's a super-strong character, a super-strong person. He's got natural charisma. He could easily be a movie star and he kind of is a movie star. As a storyteller, it's really fun to follow him, especially given what happened to GM while we were following his story. In short, as you know, GM went bankrupt. GM went through its bailout. It came back as a brand new IPO. To be able to track Bob through that was quite an opportunity for us as filmmakers.

Q: Do you see just two films on this topic or are you going for a trilogy with this? And what is left to explore?

A: Let's see where we are in five years. I didn't expect to make a second film. It's tempting to think about a third film, but I don't know at this point. I really hope that both of these films inspire people to give plug-in cars a chance. If the public doesn't try them, then the car companies won't make them.