This year marks the 20th anniversary of *Who Killed the Electric Car?*, Chris Paine's 2006 documentary that examined why General Motors discontinued and recalled its EV1, one of the first mass-produced electric vehicles in the United States. The film emerged amid rising petrol prices tied to conflict in the Middle East, a backdrop the article notes feels strikingly familiar today, and it went on to shape public debate about the auto industry's commitment to clean energy.

Paine, an environmental activist and former EV1 lessee, made the documentary his directorial debut, recruiting Martin Sheen to narrate (donating his fee to charity) and drawing contributions from Dean Devlin, Mel Gibson, Ed Begley Jr., Ralph Nader and Phyllis Diller. Sony Pictures Classics bought the film in November 2005 ahead of its Sundance premiere and brought in Alex Gibney as a consulting producer, prompting a significant re-edit. Its high-profile trailer ran before *An Inconvenient Truth*, drawing pushback from GM, while the documentary closed on an optimistic glimpse of the Tesla Roadster prototype, foreshadowing the EV boom later explored in a 2011 sequel. Paine now says electric cars "weren't killed, just delayed," reflecting that his film "asks the right question, but maybe not the complete one."