FIGHTING THE POWER OVER ELECTRIC CARS.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

Befitting its title, ``Who Killed the Electric Car?'' begins with a funeral (a mock one, but held at a real cemetery) and ends with an inquiry, one that implicates oil companies, auto manufacturers, the federal government, the California Air Resources Board and, yes, even you and me for the murder of an automobile that would be nice to have parked in your garage in these gas-gouging days.

There were several makes of electric cars, but Chris Paine's trenchant documentary focuses primarily on General Motors' EV1.

Launched in 1996, the car was fast and quiet, ran without exhaust, required no gas or oil changes and was so popular dealers kept a waiting list with tens of thousands of names.

But then GM took the cars off the road, recalling all the EV1s, which had been leased to the owners -- including Hollywood A-listers like Mel Gibson (who is interviewed here in his full-on, wild-eyed ``Apocalypto'' glory) -- without the option to buy. Paine himself drove an EV1, and like most of his brethren, really wanted to keep the car. GM didn't offer him the choice. So he decided to learn why, and ``Who Killed the Electric Car?'' is the result.

Paine's movie manages to entertain and infuriate, sometimes simultaneously, as he investigates the reasons why a U.S. automaker -- one with some serious problems -- would invest in a product only to sabotage it at every turn. GM created the EV1 as an answer to California's Zero Emissions Mandate, created in 1990, which required 2 percent of new vehicles sold in the state to be emission-free by 1998, 10 percent by 2003.

As Al Gore eloquently explained in ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' crisis can be a powerful incentive to change and create. But we live in a world where industry prefers the status quo, with a circle-the- wagons, short-term mentality that fights change in the face of all reason. To watch flunkies for oil companies and automakers offer bald lies about the electric vehicle program is to observe a corporate climate in denial, a condition that will remain the same until consumers vote with their pocketbooks.

And while Paine thoroughly and diligently damns all parties concerned, the most incredible footage comes courtesy of PBS's folksy TV personality Huell Howser, who stumbled onto a row of shiny electric cars while taping a segment about a junkyard that shreds old vehicles. Howser can't understand why these cars are being destroyed. The junk man seems equally at a loss.

Of course, you'll learn the answer after watching this riveting piece of investigation, but you won't feel any better for the knowledge. You'd think GM would feel the same way, too, but somehow I doubt it. It's always somebody else's fault, even when your market share has slid into the toilet, you're bleeding red ink and you're spending more time finding new ways to lay off employees than devising innovative ways to build cars for the 21st century.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? - Three stars

(PG: brief mild language.)

Director: Chris Paine.

Running time: 1 hr. 32 min.

Playing: Opens today at the ArcLight in Hollywood and Laemmle NuWilshire in Santa Monica. Opens Friday at the Laemmle Town Center 5 in Encino and Laemmle Pasadena Playhouse 7.

In a nutshell: Documentary answers the title question in ways that infuriate and entertain.

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Photo:

EV1 devotees hold a mock funeral for the electric car.