I am So Indie

Caught this flick yesterday. It's a neat little documentary which I hesitate to recommend, based on some of the odd looks I've gotten when talking about Wordplay. But, if you're in the mood to get really angry and people, the government and industry, it can definitely manage all three.

What's interesting is that it really illustrates how American auto makers have not learned from mistakes made in the previous decades. American cars dominated the American marketplace until the oil shortages in the 70s, when imports (read: Japanese cars), which were more economical even though they didn't have to be, made huge gains in market share. Through the 80s and 90s this continued, until the American companies finally started to come back, rallying around the SUV. There's an interesting portion of the movie that notes that the day after GM bought the rights to the Hummer, they closed their electric car plant.

So anyways, US companies had a leg up with their electric cars, or EVs as they're referred to. In the early-mid 90s they were producing and leasing them to customers. This scared the crap out of the Japanese, who either hadn't gotten as far along or were unable to penetrate the US market with their electric hybrids, so they ramped up their research. Skip ahead a few years and the US companies kill their EVs, citing a lack of demand and a decision to shift to hydrogen fuel cell technology. Toyota releases the Prius which, surprise, surprise, sells like bananas.

That's right. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

So now the Japanese car makers are, again, leaping ahead of their American counterparts, which are pushing hydrogen technology with no known mass production date, along with Hummers and other similar penile-compensating vehicles. What's the new thing the Japanese are working on? EV-hybrids, which you can plug into a normal outlet to charge (the original generation of EVs required a specific little charger thingie). And this time, the US can't even work the "Buy American" angle, what with the increasing number of US car plants outsourced and Japanese car plants being buit here.

So much, of course, depends on the consumer. I wish I could understand why people think Hummers are cool, I really do. Actually, I don't, because then I'd probably want to set my hair on fire and start punching myself in the face.