Revenge of the Electric Car (2011) - full transcript

- When you look at the 405 or the 101 or the 110,

You see how much convenience, how much mobility,

How much economic activity those corridors support.

It has built fortunes.

It has saved lives.

It has created communities.

It's made untold numbers of businesses possible.

See, now, this car right here,

This porsche cayman s,

This is a stone-Cold four-Wheeled mother of a car.

Look how nice that car is.



Ho-Ho-Ho.

Look how cute that car is. Look how cute that car is.

Look at that honda fit.

Yes, baby. Cute.

Awesome car.

The problem is the gasoline in the tank.

Now, let's kick this mule.

My god. Whoa.

Come on. Come on.

I spent my childhood driving fast cars,

Working on them, writing about them.

I love gasoline horsepower,

But i've come to the conclusion that i'll never buy

Another gasoline-Powered car as long as i live.



The only way forward is electric cars.

?

It started with an email.

The electric car was back from the dead.

The car companies had lied to us before.

Should we believe them?

The only way to find out was to go behind enemy lines.

For three years, we got access

To some of the world's most secretive carmakers.

Let's start with the biggest and baddest of them all,

General motors.

Over the last century, gm has churned out

Over 400 million gas-Burning cars and trucks.

In the 1990s, they introduced us to the joys

Of the 10-Mile-Per-Gallon hummer and the escalade.

But they also tried something truly revolutionary,

The ev1,

The world's first modern electric car.

It was fast, sleek, and powered only by electricity.

- First of all, it was the coolest car i ever had.

I was taking care of the planet.

I wasn't gunking up the air.

It was a fantastic ride.

It was fast.

I'd be zipping along, man,

70, 80 miles an hour,

You know, just feeling like a million bucks.

But gm lost faith.

They rounded up the cars as drivers protested.

- Gm, shame on you.

- Save ev1.

Then they crushed them

And left them for dead.

Gm's chief executive rick wagoner

Later called it his biggest mistake.

- When they took the ev1 away, i was definitely--

I went into a depression.

I felt, like, really sad,

Because in the long run, you look back at it--

They made a deal.

Somebody made a deal to kill the electric car.

And--You know, and it would've been a cool thing to have,

And i still would've been driving it now.

- Gm had a lot of haters

And, interestingly, people with very long memories.

They would say they never would buy another gm again.

- Gm got a lot of bad publicity for the ev1,

But here's where we are now.

There's not only a business case for electric cars.

There is a compelling business case.

There is an inevitability to this technology.

It has come so far so fast at a time

When gasoline and the politics of oil

Have become increasingly problematic.

- I think that when gas prices were high,

There was a degree of excitement around electric vehicles

That we hadn't seen before.

- I'm sick and tired of worrying

About gas prices every six months.

I'm sick and tired of these failed wars in the middle east.

I'm sick and tired of breathing the air that we're breathing.

We have the technology. We have the know-How.

We are innovative. Let's act like it.

- I do not believe this is a problem

That is gonna be resolved by regulators and bureaucrats.

This is a problem that's gonna be solved

By engineers, innovators, and entrepreneurs.

Sometimes change starts

With the most unlikely people.

- How are you today, bob?

- Pretty good, thanks. Can't complain.

Business is lousy,

But other than that, everything's fine.

This guy sure doesn't look like a radical.

- Never one to turn down a bribe.

Now, where's the brandy snifter?

Meet bob lutz, mr. Horsepower.

- We wouldn't be doing this in california.

Bob is vice chairman of general motors

And their media front man.

- Yeah, right there. Eyes are perfect.

Chin up a little bit.

All right, so...

- Oh, "bad." Okay.

One of the guys who was blamed

For killing off the ev1.

- Great.

- You mean the obama pose where you sort of...

Looking for divine inspiration?

- You're gonna look kind of like...

Like that mean...

- A threatening pose.

- Not too threatening. We don't want--

That's the last thing we want to do right now.

- Bob lutz is a giant of a man.

Like, he is just-- He's larger than life.

I mean, the just--

Bob's been a car guy all his life.

He's been vice president of ford

And bmw

And president of chrysler.

Ever heard of the 3 series?

The viper?

The ford explorer?

That's bob.

- He is has a brilliant mind-- He has a brilliant brain

When it comes to what an automotive enthusiast wants.

- In 2003, 2004, you could not find a person

Who was more dismissive of electric vehicle technology

Than bob lutz.

He thought that there was no business case for it.

He thought the people who supported it were lunatics.

He did not and probably still doesn't

Believe in global warming.

Then, i think, something happened to bob lutz.

I think he began to see some sort of light.

- Well, i do consider myself an environmentalist, and i--

But within reason.

In other words, i still realize the benefits

Of modern automotive transportation.

On the other hand, the flood of emails that i got saying,

"You rotten s.O.B.

"You sold out to the oil companies,

"And you've killed my grandchildren.

I hope you rot in hell."

- No one likes to be remembered

As an evil or bad person, and certainly,

He's enough of an egomaniac that he would--

That would sting.

- We were discussing how toyota was running away

With the technological image and the environmental image

And so forth, and i said,

"Well, why don't we at least do an electric prototype?"

And this was met with a singular absence of enthusiasm

On anybody's part

Because the company had lost so much money on ev1.

So bob's electric car came to a screeching halt.

But in a world far away from detroit,

The real rebellion was already under way.

It's launch day for america's newest car company.

Drawing inspiration

From one of the 20th century's most revolutionary inventors,

The father of a.C. Electricity,

Nikola tesla.

- It's a very momentous day for us.

It is our first car,

And of course, it's a car belonging to our first customer,

And that would be also our chairman, elon musk.

- I'm ecstatic. This is fantastic.

Awesome day.

It feels like victory.

- I feel great. It's a great day for tesla.

I got goosebumps as i saw the car roll in.

We develop for so long, who become, in some way, our son.

- This is the first production roadster

And a huge day for the company.

Tesla's gonna put thousands of these cars on the road.

But beyond that, really, what matters is,

Are we making a difference in the world?

And for us to make a difference in the world,

We have to build a lot of cars.

You know, until we see every car on the road being electric,

You know, we will not stop.

So, you know, this is really

Just the beginning of the beginning.

All right.

- Elon musk is a true believer,

And he put, you know, a tremendous amount

Of his personal prestige and personal wealth

Into that company.

- Well, so far, this is a very expensive car.

Call this the $50 million car.

'Cause that's about the amount of money

That i've invested in tesla.

So it's kind of expensive.

- Detroit is doing a lousy job making cars and making money.

I mean, it's a disaster.

So, you know, the idea that silicon valley

Could do a better job making cars,

Especially electric cars, is a very powerful one.

- We've got model two in development,

Which we're planning to unveil

Probably in the second quarter of this year,

Which is the electric sedan.

Elon's a career troublemaker.

He's taken on the banks, the space industry,

And now the car companies.

- Okay, sure you want me to drive it?

All right.

Sweet.

It's pretty awesome.

- For me, elon musk has always been

Not really so much a car guy as an entrepreneur.

He's had lots of companies in the past.

He sold pay pal to ebay.

- I just look at what he's accomplished,

And i'm like, "jeez, i better start working harder

"Because i'm not making

Those kind of accomplishments in my life."

- It's just a giant kick in the balls

To the people that said we couldn't do it

And that commercial space doesn't work.

- Elon musk is about as close as you're gonna get

In real life to tony stark,

And it shows you how one person can make a difference

With a certain amount of smarts

And inspiration to change the way people think.

- Suddenly, there was the tesla announcement.

200-Mile range,

0 to 60 in 4-Point-Something seconds,

140-Mile-An-Hour top speed, 6,831 laptop batteries.

And i basically said, "well, now, wait a minute.

"I've accepted everybody's arguments

"Of why we can't do this,

"But here's this small startup company in california,

And they think that they can get all of these figures."

Elon's coup was just what bob needed

To drag gm back into the race.

They weren't going to be shown up

By a bunch of silicon valley upstarts.

- It was a powerful argument,

So whether tesla is ever hugely successful or not,

I'll always owe them a debt of gratitude

For having kind of broken the ice.

- Bob lutz being a champion of electric cars

Is quite a switch from the bob lutz we used to know.

He sold the board on the fact that this technology

Would leapfrog toyota, which had been gm's nemesis.

- The electric car was pushed all the way up the ladder

By lutz himself in a way that is very, very personal,

A way that suggests he regards it

As his legacy at the company.

But the volt wasn't going to be a pure electric car.

That was a step too far for gm,

So the company bet

On an electric car with a backup gas engine.

This would give it more range

When the batteries ran out of power.

And then bob persuaded the company

To put the volt front and center

At gm's 100th birthday party.

- We're in the executive garage

In the basement of the renaissance center,

And this is the most secure location

That we could find in the building.

You'll notice we have plenty of security down here.

And here is our baby.

- It's now my great pleasure to present to you

The production version of the chevrolet volt.

- How'd it feel driving in an electric car?

- It felt great, chris.

I was--

I'm surprised you would ask.

- Is the electric car back from the dead?

- Well, you could argue, was it ever dead?

Because i think people were, even after we recalled the ev1s,

There were still electric vehicles out there.

But i think it's back with a vengeance,

And i would say the electrification

Of the automobile is a foregone conclusion.

- As an analyst and a long-Time journalist,

I was still cynical,

Because we'd seen a lot of concept cars

That had gotten all the hoopla at the auto shows

And then faded and died.

Some people aren't going to wait around

For corporations.

Around the world,

An underground movement is growing.

These people are making their own electric cars

Right here and right now.

- I'm gadget.

Been living and working in this warehouse for 16 years,

And then for the last couple years,

I've been doing electric cars.

What i do is, i take a car,

And i change it from gas power to electric.

It's a lot greener to take an existing car

Rather than making a new one from scratch.

I've got a triumph spitfire,

A gt6,

And a '67 camaro.

My latest project is a 356 porsche speedster.

- We got married.

We were building our future together in this building, and--

- We just finished our prototype.

Lithium ion, over 120 miles of range.

- Finally, we've got something real here.

This is the future, you know?

And it's attainable, and we can all have one.

- I can't wait to drive this around

And show it off to people.

There are thousands of gadgets out there.

Together, they're a force which could potentially rival

The big car companies.

It accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in about 6 seconds

Good for a small electric car.

It's half the price compared to tesla

Not as fast as the tesla, but it is a good electric car.

But for the big players,

The stakes tonight are even higher.

This is the first time gm has faced

The electric car community since the ev1 disaster.

- This is the halo for us.

Hopefully, we're gonna use this

To win back and recapture the hearts and minds

Of the american car-Buying public.

We've got to.

I'm not darth vader.

I'm not a bad guy. I'm not a liar.

I'm a father. I'm a dad.

I'm a husband that really cares about doing the right thing,

And the only way to get people to believe me

Is to talk like that, right?

And now they've got tesla

Biting at their heels too.

- Tesla is definitely the star of the show.

They're-- You look at the two cars--

There's not really any competition.

- The tesla has a very high price point.

I know that there are some sort of battery issues

Going on with the tesla, so it's different.

It's in its own little category.

The chevy volt is gonna be something

That's much more affordable compared to the tesla

For everyday consumers to purchase.

- That is gorgeous.

- It is gorgeous, but it's 100 grand.

But we need something that everyone can afford.

- The volt one, i think, speaks to me

Just because it's practical,

But that one speaks to me because it's fast and cool.

Put me down for one of each.

- It is very good to have something

That is a stopgap for general motors

To ultimately cut the umbilical cord

Of fossil fuels and get really onto electricity,

And if that means that we have some competition, good.

It's good for us.

- I love having gm here.

You know, the fact that they've got

A range-Extended electric--

If people drive that car

And find that they never fuel it up,

That means that they'll realize that they don't need a gas car.

They can go pure electric.

So it's a stepping stone.

By now, we were behind enemy lines.

Five years ago,

We would've been arrested trying to get in here.

Now we were bob's guests.

The question was, who was playing who?

Had bob become a true believer,

Or was he just stringing us along?

- This is one of the old malibus,

But it was dimensionally close enough

That we could put all the volt hardware

Underneath it.

Today would have to run a few meters,

I clicked the start button and it did not.

I rebooted and pressed the button and start the cycle and nothing happened.

And finally, someone found an explanation,

That the feeder was connected yet

And is not scheduled to start when you are connected.

So i disconnected, and it was very good.

I'd driven a lot of things during my long career,

And to drive a fully electric car

Lap after lap after lap around the grounds here,

I really had the feeling of it being a historic moment.

Certainly was in my career.

- If a technology can win over a doubter like bob lutz,

It can win over a lot of people, a lot of consumers.

- I think what we're witnessing now

Is probably the most significant revolution

Of our lifetime in autos.

- These are not hobbyists.

These are people responsible to shareholders.

They can't afford a hobby.

They need to make this a winner.

This is real scale industrial innovation and deployment.

- The goal of tesla is really to go

To mass market as soon as we can.

We want to make this technology and electric cars

Affordable to as many people as possible.

- We're going to have to get

The lithium ion technology together.

We're going to have to work the integration

Between the gas engine

And the lithium ion battery pack.

We're gonna have to do all of that

Because we want to launch in the fall of 2010.

- Someone just has to get a car out there and start selling it,

And then other companies will have to fill the void,

But somebody's got to be the first one out there.

- Well, we have copper wires coming from finland.

The electric motor is made out of our facilities in taiwan.

So my job is making sure that we can produce

To our production schedule.

- I have plans and backup plans

And sometimes backup plans to those backup plans,

And i'm always worried about what i'm missing.

What have i not thought of?

What has the team not thought of

That's gonna trip us up in the next two years?

- I try and keep as much of the entire car

And as much of the entire power train as i can

In my head so that i can communicate

With all the different groups and teams

And direct our work and where people are headed.

- From an automotive perspective,

Tesla has an absolutely brilliant idea,

Which is creating a fast electric car.

Unfortunately, the reality is,

Is that it takes a lot of work to build a vehicle.

- You know, you can't give tesla a pass just because

Their product happens to be cute electric cars.

- I don't know if general motors

Can make a desirable plug-In hybrid car.

The company has been damaged in so many ways

In terms of the brand

And in terms of their human capital.

You know, i don't know what the volt's gonna be like.

- It's a race.

It's a total race,

And we know where gm is in the race.

Looks like it could be the winner in it,

But we don't know what everybody else is up to.

Every revolution needs its napoleon,

Its master strategist.

The world's most formidable car mogul

Was about to enter the e.V. Race.

It was time to meet the emperor.

- There is no give in that man.

There is no dream in that man.

He's not a visionary.

He is a capitalist,

An enormously controlled, driven, desperately smart man

Who measures success, indeed life,

By dollars and euros.

Carlos ghosn doesn't get up in the morning

Unless there's money in it.

I recommend you go meet carlos ghosn

And administer sodium pentothal.

I want to know what this guy knows.

I want to know how many chassis

They're going to put this electric architecture into.

How flexible is it?

How much does it weigh?

How scalable is it?

I want to know exactly how they plan to make money.

- Okay, so who leading-- Who's leading the meeting?

- I am, sir. - Yeah.

- Just a quick recap on the progress we have made

Getting the conversation started in the global marketplace

For nissan on zero emissions and electric vehicles.

- When people express doubts about electric car,

I think we should not go very heavy on this.

We should say, "yeah, maybe there are some concerns.

We are working on them," and say--

I don't want to wake up competition.

I don't want to wake up competition.

Because the more we are progressing--

We are investing in batteries.

We are investing in cars.

This takes a lot of time, a lot of money.

They didn't start.

So every day they don't start is a good day for us.

Our big difference is, it's affordable.

- Yes. - And it's mass marketed.

That means you're gonna be able to find it

In every country at every dealership you want.

- You know, the japanese are famously averse

To saying "no" directly.

That is not ghosn's problem.

Look at how he made his reputation.

He was the axman at nissan.

- When carlos ghosn took over nissan,

Nissan was on its knees.

It was almost out of business.

- He made a reputation as being this sort of terribly,

Terribly deliberate, driven, unsentimental guy.

You know, five years ago,

Ghosn wasn't talking about electric cars.

It's remarkable the transition that has happened

In the past five or six years when not only have they decided

To go into the e.V. Market;

They have based their whole company strategy on it.

- Well, we knew nissan

Was working on lithium ion batteries,

And they have been working on them for many years,

But i think it came as quite a surprise

When mr. Ghosn announced their very aggressive strategy

In electric cars.

We didn't have truth serum,

But we did have access and inside intelligence.

Carlos was going to outflank his rivals with the leaf,

A pure electric car with a 100-Mile range

Priced for the widest possible market.

- We are the only one on the offensive

With electric cars,

And everything we've seen is more defensive moves.

- 4.6 million yen.

- It's gonna be a massacre.

Just as electric cars are starting to catch on,

The economy collapses.

Almost half of the world's financial wealth disappears

Along with millions of jobs.

- At that point, lehman brothers had collapsed.

Credit had totally dried up.

That shut off the valve of car sales.

We didn't know how many car companies

Would exist, and including,

Would there be any americans among them?

Gm is on the brink of bankruptcy.

Will the electric car be another casualty of the recession?

No one, it seems, can escape the turn of fate.

- Can you show us inside?

- Yeah, come on.

This was our 100-Plus-Mile-Range electric car.

- I woke up around 5:00 at the smell of burning plastic,

And i thought to myself, "i think there's a fire."

- I came out.

Smoke was so thick and heavy,

I wasn't sure how big the fire was.

- He came running back in and said,

"We've got to get out of here."

- Called 911.

They were here within five minutes.

By then, it was--

Flames were coming out the windows

And out the roof.

Investigators say the fire was arson

And started by vandals.

- $250,000 of tools

With no insurance.

So here's what's left of the camaro.

That's gonna break a lot of hearts.

There's my other two electric cars,

My gt6,

My spitfire.

My piano.

This was a charger

At one time.

Couple controllers that might actually be repairable, maybe.

So this one may not have had that much heat.

That could be the one saving grace.

Through all this, the light's still on.

The controller's still good.

That's incredible.

With that, i can build a car.

Want some tea?

- Yeah, i'll put the kettle on. - Okay.

Losing billions of dollars each month,

Gm and their detroit rivals come to washington, d.C.,

To ask for help.

They arrive in corporate jets,

Not the best way to plead poverty.

- Well, do you know how they got down there?

- What? - On private jets.

- Yeah. - What the hell?

- They zoom in in a private jet.

What do you think the folks are gonna say?

"Oh, yeah, let's give them more money."

- We're here today because we made mistakes,

Which we're learning from,

Because some forces beyond our control

Have pushed us to the brink.

- Can you just tell me in absolute terms,

How much money do you need to survive?

Give me your worst-Case scenario.

- The worst-Case scenario,

The amount of money would be significant.

I mean, we have supplier variables...

- What is significant?

- Of $4 billion or $5 billion every month.

- My fear is that you're gonna take this money

And continue the same stupid decisions

You've made for 25 years.

I'm afraid we're gonna do this.

It'll be a short-Term bailout,

And you didn't get the message.

Give us the cars that we want

That other companies have been able to give us.

- How much money do you need--

As public outrage grows,

Bob is sent out to calm the mob.

- You got a little pin on there.

It says "gm." - Yes.

- That stand for "grand mason"?

Are you one of the--

Are you secretly controlling the world economy?

- Oh, gee, i wish we were.

- If you were controlling the world economy,

You would be doing a terrible job right now,

I have to say.

- The crew is ready.

- Yeah, i just dropped my--

I banged my thigh on the corner of the desk,

And it's gonna take a second for the pain to die down.

I'm trying to catch up on my emails.

I'm getting so many

As a result of the tv appearances.

I think they were worried i would say the wrong thing,

You know, because generally, our communications strategy

Is in the direction of risk avoidance.

In other words,

A tv interview where nobody says the wrong thing

And you get off relatively unscathed

Is considered a success, but the problem is,

You haven't used the opportunity

To convey any positive information,

So i'm not a proponent

Of the risk-Free communications approach.

Mr. Horsepower has been cut down to size.

However bob spins it,

There's little to celebrate in detroit.

Four of gm's brands will be axed,

Including hummer.

- Hello, mark.

Hello, mark. Hello, john.

Even their lunches are looking a little less lavish.

- Well, it's sandwich surprise.

- What we need to do is just go over

The north america auto show, the lineup.

- Yeah, all right.

- I'll show you what this looks like,

But this is the wall.

And one turntable.

- It's radically de-Blinged from last year.

- Radically de-Blinged.

- I mean, it is--

It would be a good time for a little humility.

- It would be. - Yeah.

- Yeah

- I'm very afraid that gm's gonna disappear

In the next year.

And i'm very afraid for our entire economy.

I'm very afraid for the automotive industry

In general if that happens.

Gm represents such a huge chunk of jobs

In the overall nationwide economy

That to see them fail would be horrible.

People say, "ah, who needs american car companies?

I do not care if i have or not a chevrolet dealer in the street

And if the dealer dodge disappeared,

Because i will continue to buy toyotas or nissans hundred. "

We have already lost a lot of production capacity,

Because everything has been outsourced.

The last major processing industry to be forgotten in the u.S., Is the automobile,

And let it fall would be catastrophic for the u.S. Economy.

We will certainly boost a severe economic depression.

Crisis of confidence

One man tried to reinvent the auto industry

Back in the 1940s.

Preston tucker started a car company from scratch.

Like elon, he wanted to beat detroit at their own game.

But after making just 51 cars at his headquarters in chicago,

He went bankrupt.

- Preston tucker's biggest problem was,

He underestimated the amount of money it took

To keep a car company going,

And then that led to him getting into legal problems,

And that was the end of maybe a very good idea.

- The investment world has all of a sudden

Sort of pulled back into their shell, if you will,

In the fact that the money's just not available anymore,

And they probably don't have it available to them,

And thus, it's not available to us.

It's unfortunate.

I think it's just part of the times right now.

And, you know, i lost some friends

That i worked with for many years,

And that's too bad, but, you know, we--

Hopefully, we can move on

Despite what has happened recently.

- I got a message last week

That if roadster can't sustain the company by march,

Then that's it, and that scares me.

- We need to get the company to cash flow positive

In six to nine months, or we're screwed.

It's really pedal to the metal here.

Like, i mean,

Each month that passes is literally--

Costs us tens of millions of dollars.

I mean, we need to appreciate that.

Tesla's gone through

More than $100 million in two years

And made just over 100 cars.

- It wasn't until zach and doreen found the faults

That we then realized that we had substandard parts

On those cars,

Which, quite frankly, pissed me off.

- I want names named.

So if someone's always on the hot seat

And is always the root cause for problems,

They will not be part of this organization long-Term.

It's not okay to be unhappy and part of this company.

- Right. Exactly.

Exactly.

- Hi. - Hi, how are you?

At 38, elon's running spacex and tesla.

He's got five boys,

He's going through a very public divorce,

And he's got a new fiancee.

- I do have...

- Dad, what's this game?

What's this game?

- Did you just take--

Did you just take that from your brother?

- Yeah, but i wanted to see what game it is.

- See, this is what i'm talking about.

Somebody took somebody's toy.

- But i want to see--

- I don't know how he handles the stress.

I mean, if i was him, i'd have died of a heart attack.

You would not wish that kind of pain on your worst enemy.

Elon proposed really quickly.

The idea of being swept off your feet is appealing,

And i'd probably have said yes

To anyone that seemed half sensible

If they proposed after ten days

Just 'cause it's kind of an interesting thing to do.

- Do that thing, dad.

- You know, obviously moved

Straight into the house with the children,

And it became a very real thing immediately.

My parents are traumatized by this whole experience.

Although there's been so many times, i'm like,

"Right, i'm getting on a plane to england,

And i'm never gonna see you again."

- Really?

- No.

Um...

No. No, not really.

No.

Cuddly girl.

- All right.

- There are all kinds of things being said about the volt,

A lot of questions about,

Really, how much mileage will it get?

There have been rumors about spending a lot of time

In the wind tunnel changing the design,

The battery having technical issues

And really not being able to deliver on gm's promise.

- This is the latest version.

- No, it's not, because it's still got

The screen that looks like it's removable.

- Well, and then--And we got the gears to be fixed--

- That gear shift.

- Ah, you are taking away the story.

So this is the latest version.

- Almost the latest version.

It looks like it's removable,

So you think people would want to grab it and pull it.

And the second thing is,

Think of all the dust and crud and cigar ash and everything

That's gonna get down around behind those cracks.

Well, i'm not the only cigar smoker in the world.

- Are you guys gonna go in and make sure that that thing

Actually has snap to it?

- Do you think bob boniface of the design group

Would leave a key transition like that

To a bunch of engineers and die makers?

- Well, but you know--

- Let's put it this way:

It happened before, and now we're scrambling around

Trying to get it back again.

- These things keep coming along

From people outside the car business

Who have knowledge in some area

And, frankly, have a tendency

To treat the car business with disdain, because they say,

"Yeah, but that's the old rust belt stuff,

"And they're still making these things

In great big factories with a lot of workers."

We believe in moore's law, you know?

And by applying the principles of electronics,

We can really revolutionize this thing,

And they all fall on their butts.

I mean, without fail.

And i hope the best for tesla.

You know, i like those guys.

And i think we would all like to see

Successful production of electric vehicles,

Whether they're ours or somebody else's,

But i think elon musk and the guys

Are learning what it means

To put automobiles into production.

- Yup. - It ain't easy.

- Yup.

- In 1920, in the u.S., There were about 300 carmakers.

Today there are 2 1/2.

It is a very demanding business that is constantly consolidating

And chucking the little guys out.

- I'm just headed to the menlo store

'Cause i want to do a car-By-Car walkthrough.

I wanted to get basically a rundown of each car.

What's its status, and what are the issues?

And i'm gonna do this every week.

- Yeah, this is, like-- This is definitely

On the list of improvements.

- Holy mackerel.

Jesus.

Yeah, like, we have, like, an army of cars here.

Like, jesus.

- I'm looking like we're gonna be able to deliver

Four cars to the sales team--

- This is frightening.

- What's going on here is,

The team has been doing a little bit of rework today.

Remember, i was talking to you earlier

About the vehicle that had the noise?

It had the transmission noise?

I wanted to point something out to you just kind of--

You can see it looks like something got dragged

Over the hood.

- I mean, we should be inspecting at this level.

If it's getting scratches in its shipment,

Then we need to get the--

You know, either ding the shipping company

Or find some way to stop that, you know?

- I agree.

- Jesus, the breather hose is coming up that high?

- Yeah. - What the...

Why?

Are there any other resources we can apply to the problem?

I mean... - Right now, we're using--

- I'd rather over-Hire for this situation.

Like, damn it, we got to get these cars out.

Let's stock inventory.

Let's repair chips here.

I'm available 24-7 to help solve issues.

Call me at 3:00 a.M. On a sunday morning.

I don't care.

- This is vin 23.

This car had a drivetrain issue,

So we're swapping in the new one right now.

- Let's not even wait for the analysis.

Just put a new power train in,

Table it for analysis, and let's get it out there.

- Absolutely.

- Right now, we're facing an issue,

Which is that it's sort of a crisis of confidence

Among our customers where you can

Only tell them "delay" so many times,

And then they start to think,

"Man, is this company ever gonna get me a car?"

- This is my car.

- This is your car?

This is actually your car?

No kidding. - Yeah, 23, right?

Number 23? - Yes, it's number 23.

- Okay.

Well, you've heard the explanation now.

So i guess hopefully, it'll have a power train tomorrow.

- Yes, absolutely. - Okay.

It's a nice car.

I was just thinking, actually, it's a nice choice of colors.

- Hello. How are you?

- When i think about carlos ghosn

And his approach to the e.V. Market,

I think of sun tzu, the art of war.

Be where your enemy isn't.

And so he has decided to build a million-Vehicle market.

They're talking about building, you know, 150,000 e.V.S

In north america in the next three years.

This is a big, strategic move,

And if it fails,

There will be no carlos ghosn,

And there might not be a nissan.

That's how high the stakes are.

- Good morning. How are you?

- Good morning. - Yeah.

Anything special we need to feature on it?

What's the weight of the battery on it?

250 kilograms?

This one under 250.

We have a normal trunk? - Yes.

- Can we open the trunk or not yet?

- Very good. Okay.

Anything else?

That's it? - Yeah.

- Very good.

After years of planning,

Carlos is ready to launch his $6 billion offensive.

The only question:

Will his rivals get there first?

- Want to place it in the middle.

- Can carlos ghosn and nissan make money on the leaf

And other electric vehicles?

'Cause we don't know how much the car's gonna cost.

We don't know what the profit margins are

And don't know what the production volume is.

- You know, there is that thing that gm talks about,

That range anxiety, and, you know,

Are people gonna buy a car that can only go 100 miles

Between really lengthy charges?

The scariest part is,

Can they really get the cost of these batteries down?

And will it be something that's sort of viable long-Term?

- Ultimately, carlos ghosn

Has to be the greatest salesman on earth

And convince consumers across the globe

That they should buy electric cars.

Otherwise, the risk does not pay off.

- It's starting at 9:50.

- 9:50?

- But we're gonna go straight into the briefing right now.

This way. - Okay.

The shortcut from the ongoing problem

To the solution is a breakthrough.

The solution is mass-Marketed zero-Emission mobility

On a global scale.

Our environment is changing,

And so is the way we are adapting to these new realities.

Nissan is bringing an electric vehicle lineup

Designed for the mass market

By offering environmental benefits

At the price people can afford.

Our technology is real.

- Well, after the fire, charlotte and i

Were living on the bus for two months,

And with the fire, it made me really look around,

Made me open my eyes and see what else is available.

Thanks to a loan from family and friends,

Gadget starts over.

- This is the new building.

The thing that i really didn't like about this

Is that this is a disposable building.

It's just a sheet-Metal shed.

I'm gonna build a new building inside of it,

And as my building comes up, i'll slowly tear this one away,

So it'll be sort of the old shedding away

And the new coming up through it.

There's no electricity at all.

There were homeless people living in here with fires,

So the whole place is covered with soot.

I want to take this roof and take it up higher.

We'll have a couple of car lifts in here.

And then in the back part of the building,

This will be a nice little place for a garden.

The first thing i want to do is rebuild the porsche.

And if i can get this thing from l.A. To palm springs

And prove i have over 100 miles of range,

I've got a viable business.

So very quickly, i need to put together some tools

And get the car together and get it out,

And then we'll be back in business.

- ? if i could hold, hold out for now ?

? what with these icecaps melting down ?

? with the transistor sound

? and my chevrolet terreplein

? going around, around, around

? come on, little gamma ray

?

After a year of delays,

Tesla roadster number 23 is finally delivered.

Several hundred more are still on order.

- Sometimes i feel like i'm writing the same story

About tesla over and over again,

Which is that elon musk has said this unbelievable thing

About tesla motors' financial condition or their product plans

Or what have you, and it turns out not to be true.

Which leads us to martin eberhard,

One of the founders of tesla.

He is now suing elon for libel, slander, and breach of contract.

- Martin was the original visionary of the tesla roadster.

He's been sort of airbrushed

Out of the corporate history of tesla

Much like a kremlin official.

- When i started tesla motors,

There were just two things that everybody knew

About electric cars.

One of them was that they sucked,

And two was that they were dead.

And this is the car that changed

The way people think about electric cars.

This is tesla's first business plan.

This is the first copy of the first business plan.

- Tesla at that point wasn't--

It was just basically a business plan

And three guys working part-Time.

It's quite comical in the amount of money that--

I think it said, like, $35 million

Or something like that--

Was the total that would be needed to get to production.

Rather than $195 million, which is what it actually took.

It didn't work very well.

- There comes a point in the history

Of most startup companies where the entrepreneurs

That started the company have to move on,

And sometimes that's done in a very smooth way,

And sometimes it's not.

- He was fired from the company at that point

And from the board.

And it was a unanimous board decision, by the way.

Martin withdraws his lawsuit

After elon threatens to countersue.

To this day, the two men disagree

About the history of tesla motors.

Elon's becoming better known

For feuds and firings

Than for making cars.

And now the company is out of money.

- I mean, it's pretty hard fighting a two-Front war

In the middle of a siberian winter.

And both fronts are really frickin' hard.

Between spacex and tesla,

Elon's burned through almost his entire pay pal fortune

And is down to his last $3 million.

- Just to keep tesla alive, i had to wire $3 million

Personally with no guarantee of anything,

Basically wire the funds and say, "use it."

Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to make payroll.

To generate cash,

Tesla raises prices on people still waiting for their cars.

Even the true believers are starting to doubt.

- I put a deposit down two years ago.

$50,000.

That's a lot of deposit.

And a lot of friends who are a lot of naysayers.

"You're silly. You're stupid.

"You are just another one of the dumb doctors

"Who fall for the boneless chicken ranch kind of schemes,

And you'll never see your money."

So when this came along,

All of a sudden, i took a big gulp.

And i'm like, "wow, my friends might be right."

- I cannot understate the degree of grief

That i've personally gone through

And that many of the other people at tesla

Have gone through to make this work.

When i say it was like eating glass,

I mean glass sandwich every bloody day, okay?

I wish we didn't have to raise prices.

It sucks.

But i can't carry tesla entirely by myself.

It's just--I just don't have the resources to do it.

- We took faith in you,

And now you're just turning around

And changing the price on us, not telling us,

And then we find out about it backwards,

And now, well, kind of--

Everyone's hurt because we weren't told.

- We can't sell cars for, you know,

Less than they cost us to produce.

If anything, what we had, more than that occurred,

Then it was an accident--

- Well, that's why there was a bunch of comments

After it that all got--

- Okay.

There seemed to be a little bit of anger

From some people in the room

Who felt that we'd kind of done a bait and switch.

And i mean, that's sort of a little bit true

That there was a bit of a bait and switch.

I mean, it's--

That's, i mean, kind of what happened.

It was very tough.

I never thought i was someone

Who was capable of a nervous breakdown,

But i think i came as close as i'll ever come

On december 22nd.

And then i think, once you've snapped,

You probably don't realize it because you've gone insane.

And your ability to sort of

Look in the mirror psychologically

Is substantially impaired.

Probably, most insane people don't think they're insane.

So i don't know.

It was just like, "jeez."

- If tesla motors were to fail, it would be--

It would be a dramatic comeuppance for elon.

It might be the thing that sort of shakes him awake,

That he can't just imagine a new world

And will it into being,

That he actually has to solve all of the everyday problems

That everyone else in the business world

Has to solve day in, day out.

Elon's dream of taking on detroit

With a publicly traded car company is falling apart.

Desperate for money,

He's reportedly talking with big car companies

And has applied for a $465 million loan

From the department of energy.

- Well, we've been told by the d.O.E.

That we are likely to receive the money

In about four months.

So if we were to take them at their word,

Then that's what will happen.

- 8 mile was always the dividing line.

South of 8 mile was detroit.

North of 8 mile were the suburbs.

Regardless of how bad the economy got,

It never went north of 8 mile.

And then in maybe the early '80s,

It never went north of 12 mile, 13 mile.

Now you can go up to 16 mile, 17 mile,

And you'll see a multiplicity of "for sale" signs,

And never had you seen that before.

And i think that really demonstrates

The dire time that we're in.

We have seen the rise and, yes, the decline

Of what is known as the big three:

General motors, ford, and chrysler.

Lives are hanging

In an abyss of uncertainty

As both houses of congress will decide

On whether they will or will not

Extend a helping hand.

All of you

That work for the automotive industry,

Come to the altar.

We're gonna make it.

- ? we're gonna make it

- Come on, i know somehow...

- ? i know somehow

- And i know someway...

- ? i know someway

- We're gonna make it.

- ? we're gonna make it

It looks like the only way to save gm

Will be to let the company go bankrupt.

- Okay, everybody back in the vehicle.

Bob's good humor is wearing thin.

- This is probably the first picture of me ever

In the new york times.

- From yesterday?

- Yeah, it was yesterday.

Well, the gist of the article is,

Could we please tell the truth about general motors?

And the whole tenor of the congressional testimony

And the questioning has been,

We just insisted on making big trucks,

And we failed to see the change.

We failed to see the handwriting on the wall,

And the wise japanese in their infinite foresight

Saw this coming and concentrated on small cars.

And, you know, that is wrong on so many levels.

The american public, environmental sentiment aside,

Goes where the gas prices are.

There is a risk at current gasoline prices

That the volt will experience the same fate as the ev1,

That is, everybody looks at it and says,

"That's nice, but why should i pay

"All that money for that thing

When i can buy gasoline at $1.50 a gallon?"

And this is kind of my role, because i don't mind

Taking a little personal risk in communication,

And given my age, this is another good thing.

See, given my age,

If i really say something that is unfortunate

And has the potential of causing the company

Some embarrassment, they can always say,

"Well, that's lutz. You know what i mean?

He's a good guy, but he is getting on a bit."

So...

- I recognize that today's news carries a particular importance

Because it's not just any company we're talking about.

It's gm.

It's a company that's not only been a source of income

But a source of pride for generations of americans.

Earlier today, gm filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy

And will mark the end of an old gm

And the beginning of a new gm.

That's why our government will be making

A significant additional investment

Of about $30 billion in gm.

But i want to be honest with you.

Building a leaner gm will come at a cost.

More jobs will be lost.

More plants will close.

We are acting as reluctant shareholders

Because that is the only way to help gm succeed.

But i want you to know that what you're doing

Is making a sacrifice for the next generation.

- It's been extremely frustrating and disappointing.

Since we moved in,

We just haven't been able to move forward at all.

- We've learned that the building has--

We knew it had pigeons, but it turns out

The infestation goes back for years,

So there's this airborne yeast and mites,

Which has affected me.

I'm not really supposed to be here.

I can't stay for long. Got to wear a respirator.

Turns out that all this paint that's peeling

Has got lead in it.

The dust on the floor is toner because there was a business

That recycled toner cartridges here,

And they also did mercury bulb and battery disposal here.

So none of this was disclosed,

And it apparently, that's the dust that's on the floor.

It's sort of a toxic waste in here,

And people should not be inside.

- The whole time that we've been here has been hard,

Feeling angry, frustrated, and just completely at a loss

As to what to do and where to go and how to move on.

It's just taken the wind out of my sails.

So gadget abandons his home

And stops work on his electric car.

Like bob and elon,

He's discovered that revolutions don't come easy.

With his competitors in disarray,

Carlos dispatches the leaf

On a cross-Country u.S. Campaign.

Will his vision of an affordable electric car survive,

Or will it perish

Under the long shadow of the gasoline car?

- I think this definitely is

Act two of the electric car saga.

- Where you don't know if the hero's alive or dead.

You're not even sure who the hero is anymore.

- Yeah. - But you know that--

- You saw his car drive off a cliff.

Was he in it? - Right, is he alive?

Is he clinging to the cliff?

I guess we'll have to tune in to act three to find out.

President obama fires gm's ceo rick wagoner,

And bob goes into exile.

The volt is in jeopardy,

Along with bob's legacy.

- We have two white swans,

And she's been sitting on eggs for weeks and weeks,

And the cygnets hatched.

And the day before yesterday, there were four.

Last night, there were three.

And this morning, d. Says he can only count one.

And it's uncertain

Whether it's the large catfish that we have in the pond

Or whether it's the snapping turtles.

But it's...

It's a dog-Eat-Dog world out in that pond.

I think you have to start slowing down at some point

And enjoying life a little bit more.

Denise frequently complains that,

"You're always gone. You're never available."

So at some point,

I am going to have to force myself to stop

And let total boredom take over.

Tesla gets a $90 million lifeline

From daimler.

But the d.O.E. Loan has still not come through,

So elon plays his last card.

He launches the more affordable model s,

Hoping to wow washington

And pull in fresh money to keep tesla afloat.

But behind the scenes,

The model s prototype

Isn't quite ready.

- Hey, can somebody kick me that flashlight?

- I really believe that the sedan is absolute vaporware.

There is no way that tesla has the cash on hand

In order to be able to truly develop their own sedan.

- Need to get a 1/2 inch torque wrench, please.

- They've got a prototype that they're going to show,

And they're going to start taking deposits,

Which i find just an amazing act of gall.

- The last few days--

The last few months--

Just been a very, very high workload.

And then between spacex, tesla, and kids,

There's just really not enough time in the day,

So not enough time to sleep.

Am i looking forward--

You know, the honest answer is,

I'm not looking forward to the party tonight.

50-Inch tv at the same time.

All night long, i'll be selling cars,

For five hours,

After sort of selling cars for, you know,

Five hours before that.

It won't be fun for me.

I hope it's fun for others, though.

You can actually put a 50-Inch tv, a surfboard,

And a mountain bike at the same time.

Extremely good handling.

You'd need a spatula to turn this thing over.

I hope you consider buying one.

- Okay, yeah, well, definitely.

- I think it would be well suited, you know

- Definitely.

In his final years, nikola tesla was ridiculed

For making outlandish claims.

Is elon facing the same problem?

- Oh, elon's gonna lose his shirt.

Yeah, elon's gonna get crushed.

- People said he'd never get the rocket in space.

He did that.

People said the roadster would never get delivered.

He did that.

People said he'd never get 100 of them done.

He's got 200 done.

- I think it's ridiculous to criticize somebody

Who's actually creating a change.

- As an entrepreneur, you can't listen to the noise.

And you certainly can't listen to losers

Who have never accomplished anything with their life

Who are obsessing about you.

Please.

- Yeah, i'd love to have an opportunity

To walk around the event and see all the cars.

You know, i don't actually pay close attention

To what others are doing,

'Cause i have so much to do

At tesla and spacex.

- Did you see that one?

- That looks like a-- Very much a concept car.

Um...sorry.

- That's all right. Just chase us around.

- Oh, hey. How you doing?

- Hi, elon, how are you doing?

- Good, how are you? - Fine, thanks.

Are you enjoying the show?

- Yeah, i just got here early this morning.

- Where--Where's your vehicle?

Do you have it displayed?

- Yeah, it's just that way.

- So you're not in electric alley?

- We're close.

- Yeah, well, we're not in electric alley either

With the volt.

Have you had a look at the byd?

- No, i haven't actually had a look at anything yet.

I've just been in meetings all morning.

- There's some really strange stuff here in electric alley.

- Oh, that's cute.

- I'll tell you what.

I'll go ahead in my corvette zr1,

And you can chase me down with this thing.

- All right, it's a deal. We got deal.

But the nissan leaf certainly--

What do you think of that?

- It sounds like it could be successful.

I mean, i think it seems like a good way to go.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, i kind of-- I kind of--

I mean, i kind of like it.

- They don't tell you very much

100 miles per charge.

"Actual range may vary based on conditions, weather,

And battery age."

- Hmm.

- Well, we're gonna go for the groundbreaking

Of the facilities.

They're gonna build the batteries and electric cars

For the united states.

It's an important investment for us.

- It's been described as the largest deployment

Of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure

Ever undertaken.

I'm very proud that tennessee is an integral part of this effort.

- Everybody's gonna come to the game

When their electric car will be ready.

- Do you feel like you're ahead of the game?

- I don't feel; i am.

Carlos sounds confident.

The truth is, he's gambling with billions of dollars

And tens of thousands of jobs,

And the sharks are circling.

- I'd like to know if the leaf will be affordable enough.

- The leaf, the shift to electrification of vehicles

As a risk for nissan or not.

- What was the personal thought process?

Was there a certain "aha" moment?

- The "aha" moment is every day.

I mean, i would not be driving all of this if i saw a risk.

Obviously, there is no guarantee.

People say, you know, "how about the guy who's making"--

You know, "driving very long range?"

We don't care.

We are not addressing the car for these people.

- Talk about your model for profitability for leaf.

- Frankly, i can't give you any answer.

Any answer.

You need to predict the future, prepare for it.

You don't know if it's gonna happen,

But if it happens, we'll be ready.

A few blocks from the hotel room

Where nikola tesla died penniless 60 years earlier,

Elon faces his final challenge:

Selling tesla to wall street.

The omens are not good.

The nasdaq is down 2% and falling.

- Everybody's talking about one of the most hyped ipos

In recent memory: tesla motors.

It sold 1,063 cars.

I myself have sold 1,063 cars.

You don't want to own this stock.

You shouldn't even rent the darn thing.

- Well, big losses on wall street today

As we've been reporting,

And it's just the same for just about any u.S. Stock,

Except one: tesla motors.

- It is up.

It priced above the range.

It sold 20% more stock than it thought it would,

And it is still up.

- Shares of the electric car maker tesla motors are up.

- The electric carmakers surged nearly 41%,

The second best ipo gain of the year.

- So this is a very big indicator to some, not to all,

That tesla is for real, a real car company

That's going to usher in the future of cars.

- You know, for a while there,

We had a lot of bloggers maintaining a tesla death watch.

- A day-By-Day count of how long before tesla would die.

- Right, it seems that that may--

They may be waiting for a while.

- It says, "nasdaq welcomes elon musk.

June 29, 2010."

- Yay!

Your name!

You know,

Sometimes success is the best revenge.

Gm's restructuring seems to be working.

The company begins to pay back its government loan.

Bob's plug-In volt goes into production.

- It's a thrill. It's a thrill.

I just wish there were more of them.

There we go.

In goes the battery.

Ultimately, every single car in the line will be a volt.

My own personal prognosis for volt sales

Is way, way, way beyond

What general motors currently says.

- Okay. - Gentlemen, how are you?

- Hi. - Well, good to see you.

- Bill. Pleasure to meet you.

- It's good to see that the line is very, very busy.

- Please sign my book for me.

Thank you, mr. Ghosn. It was an honor to meet you.

- For an all-Electric vehicle, it makes me feel

Like i'm on the front end of something new.

It's a new wave.

I can look back years from now

When it becomes popular.

I can tell my kids, "hey, we were one of the first

That came up with the new electric vehicles."

It'd be astounding to be able to tell them that

In years to come.

- So the toast is to creating

The greatest car company of the 21st century

And making a real difference to the world

And moving us off [...] oil as fast as possible.

And gadget finally finds a new home.

All: ten, nine, eight, seven, six,

Five, four, three, two, one.

Midnight!

- What does it take to get a picture just you and me?

- What's needed for the real revenge of the electric car?

Time.

It's just a matter of time.

- ? it is a line out of science fiction ?

- Right now, we have a dirty grid,

But the cool thing about the electric car

Is that it's the only car in the world

That gets cleaner over time,

Because as we clean up the grid,

And there's every indication we will--

The more you clean up the grid, the cleaner your car gets.

It's the only vehicle in the world

That actually gets cleaner the longer you own it.

- What we're proving in israel

Is that we can actually put a system in place,

An extension to the grid,

That would get a country off oil.

- See, that's the difference between having

A gas-Guzzling car and an electric car.

That's like the dark ages.

This is the new age.

This is gonna happen.

Everybody's gonna want it.

You wanted the internet.

You're gonna want an electric car.

- Hi. - Hey, there.

- Hey, how you doing? - Good.

- Thanks for coming.

Beautiful. - So this is it.

- Oh, yeah, that. That is a beautiful car.

That's the volt? - That's the volt.

- Okay, look at that baby.

This is a chevy.

- It's a chevrolet, yup. - Oh, man.

This better be good. - Who'd have thought, right?

- Who'd have thunk i'd be driving a chevy?

- Did you drive our ev1?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

- Was that yours? - That was gm, yup.

- Oh, man, i loved that car.

- That was a fantastic car. - Oh, my god.

You're not gonna take this one away from me, are you?

- No.

- That's the most solid chevy i ever drove in my life.

Seriously.

- I don't want to wait another 60, 70 years

Before we catch up to the reality

That it's here now.

These innovations are here.

Bring them to me.

I want to play.

- ? the story has faded from love to lie ?

? the clover under your feet

? shooting star in the night

? people under your feet

? are shooting stars in the night ?

? the people, all that you meet ?

? they're living in a dream world ?

? living in a dream world

? living in a dream world ?

? living in a dream world

?

- There comes a point when you know too much.

For me, knowing what i know

And having been where i've been,

Gasoline-Powered cars started to become

Very, very bittersweet for me.

And i've been saying good-Bye in my head for about a year now.

What i want is a car that i can live with

That goes fast and is fun and is clean,

'Cause that's where the imagination is.

That's where the inspiration is at.

That's the future.

?

- ? there's a long line of cars ?

? and they're trying to get through ?

? there's no single explanation ?

? there's no central destination ?

? but this long line of cars

? is trying to get through

? and this long line of cars

? is all because of you

?

- Yay!

- Well.

121.5 miles.

- Fantastic.

- ? long line

Announcer: the american bison survived the ice age

But was hunted down to a handful of survivors.

- This land still has the memory

Of what the buffalo means to it.

- The bison once were here.

Will they flourish here again?

That's the question and the debate.

- If buffalo are ever to make it,

Now is the time.