"Electric Vehicles: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" Review

Audio By Carbonatix

At the beginning of the new documentary Electric Vehicles: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, conservative talk show host Larry Elder notes that he’s ambivalent about the concept of electric vehicles. He states that he loves his gasoline-powered car but adds, “I don’t want the planet to be damaged.”

In other words, he’s open-minded about the concept of electric vehicles while remaining fond of the gasoline-driven automobiles that dominate today’s roads.

Early on, director Mathias Magnason does a commendable job in presenting the two different vehicular options that the feature focuses on. Elder travels to the annual L.A. Auto Show to see what they have to offer and he spends time at the Electrify Expo, an electric vehicle (EV) expo.

He talks to experts on both sides of the debate. At the Expo, he learns about the EV market and asks about the priciness of those vehicles. He learns that one of the reasons is that the scale of EVs can’t compete with the scale of gasoline-driven cars (according to an expert, EVs only represent 3% of the market) but that will could change as the market grows. He also talks to the host of a long-running program about cars and learns about the downsides of relying on electricity for too much of our lives.

To their credit, the filmmakers then expand the discussion and explore how the simplistic debate of electric vehicles versus gasoline-driven vehicles only touches the surface of the debate. There are a lot of complicated elements to the discussion that are often ignored. For instance, mining is often seen as something that only needs to be done for gasoline-driven vehicles when, in fact, mining is needed to create the batteries that are used for electric vehicles.

Mining might seem like a door to yesteryear when, as the world moves more and more towards electric vehicles, it actually would need to play a huge part in the future. 

The documentary notes the benefits of electric cars (the convenience, the self-driving mechanisms, and the environmental benefits) and even shows Elder test-driving a Tesla. However, it also raises some questions about moving towards them too quickly. There are questions about mining, E-waste and ill-conceived government mandates that are sometimes put into place without a full appreciation of the consequences.

Although the story explores some complicated (and somewhat dry) subjects, Magnason keeps the proceedings moving at a steady pace. The man on the street brief interviews are one of the feature’s highlights along with some of the filmmaker’s stylistic flourishes (especially during the car show sequences).

However, there are times — especially in the third act — where the story becomes a little unfocused and steers away from its main subject. There are also a number of extraneous shots of Elder walking from place to place. His journey is interesting enough that the B footage oftentimes feels unnecessary.

Early on in the feature, Elder notes that he’s “always been a truth-seeker.” The truth presented in the documentary is that moving from our current environment (of an abundance of gas-driven vehicles) to a future of electric vehicles dominating the roadways presents a number of tough obstacles. Although some might say that our reliance on fossil fuels needs to end, building a better future is more complicated than mandates would suggest.

Moving to a more sustainable future is worthwhile but this nuanced and engaging documentary helps suggests that doing so will be a bumpier road than many would care to admit.