One Last Thing Before I Go

I'm not sure if this is a product of Chinese apathy, government intervention, or me just looking in the wrong places, but I find it really hard to find interesting movies here in Beijing. In reality, it's probably none of the above reasons, and maybe even a more globalized apathy effect, but it's especially vexing since I don't think NetFlix delivers here. Fortunately, illegal online sharing can span the great Pacific divide to bring those hard-to-find nuggets of interest (another reason I think the "Great Chinese Firewall" is a silly, hopeless endeavor, but that's a whole 'nuther topic). I'd been hearing enough about this movie, "Who Killed the Electric Car?", that I finally decided to make use of the greatest thing college taught me, how to download pirated movies.

I wasn't expecting such a well-made movie, and I certainly wasn't expecting to be so sad about the death of what what was ostensibly a failed product. You have to see it for yourself and find your own villain, but keep your eyes peeled for my favorite guy, the funky old inventor of the NiMH battery.

Fortunately, for those of us who believe in reincarnation, there's a new punk making cars so sexy you hardly notice it's electric, it's called the Tesla. This has to be the place every engineer should want to work, especially since they have nothing to do with Detroit, designing the car in silicon valley and assembling in England.

From the Chinese view, there's not much to say other than "Yes we can manufacture that for you." Chinese electric bikes, on the other hand, are all over the place and cheap enough that they sometimes outnumber the clunky pedal and gear variety. This of course raises two questions: If they can do it, why can't we? And, can the leap to highways really be that hard? Maybe, if you're encumbered with the imaginativeness of Detroit.

P.S.