Contains spoiler
RotEC is a movie not so much about the cars as about the people behind them. It covers the struggles, wins and losses of Bob Lutz of GM (Chevy Volt), Elon Musk (Tesla), Carlos Ghosn (Nissan Leaf) and Greg "Gadget" Abbott (Left Coast Electric). I was struck by several things. First, Bob Lutz and Elon Musk have a huge amount of swagger, personality and self-confidence, which may also be described as being "full of yourself". On the other hand, you probably need a lot of that to make it in the business. Lutz has been around for years in the industry, probably knows everybody, could walk away at any time and retire, but sticks with the job to preserve his "legacy". By the end of the movie, when he does retire, he reminded me of a former President or General, knowing that the world has moved on, and he's no longer critical to its functioning. It's bittersweet, but he might be called out of retirement at any time....
As for Elon Musk, watching him was like watching a stunt flier at an air show who gets really, really close to the ground one too many times. As an aside, his entire family is pretty dynamic. His sister is a movie producer and his brother runs a social media business. Anyway, it seemed like most of the movie was just him telling Tesla employees, "C'mon guys, we have to get this done". I got the impression the movie didn't show the back room stuff where the hardball decisions were made. The movie was pretty good at showing you just how close to the edge of failure he seemed to live, when he had a warehouse full of cars needing rework, and creditors breathing down his neck. In spite of everything, all the people saying this is the end, get ready for bankruptcy, etc., Tesla survives, cars are delivered and now he's bringing up the Model S factory in Fremont CA. The best line in the movie about him was something to the effect of "I have to admire the guy, he's really doing something, as opposed to people who sit around and criticize and tell you how you will fail."
As for Nissan, I've heard Ghosn speak before about the LEAF, but RotEC shows him as slightly cut-throat, which was new for me. He's pretty swaggering as well, but in an outwardly friendly way. I really enjoyed him telling a Nissan Exec, "Every day they aren't building a car is a good day for us." He got Nissan in a crouch, and I think he pounced when Nissan announced the price of the Leaf. Is Th!nk the first casualty? He probably has more up his sleeve...
The guy I like best, and can relate to the best was Greg Abbott, referred to simply as Gadget. Man, if I knew half what that guy knows about building stuff, that would be pretty cool. He had this really great garage that did ev conversions, but it was burned to the ground by what the movie said was random arson. No cars, no tools, no shop, nothing. As he's digging around through the rubble, he finds an undamaged charge controller with its LED light still on. It brought a tear to my eye when he says "With this, I can build a car!" Go man, go. Eventually, he brings up Left Coast Electric again, and the movie closes with him and his wife driving from LA to Palm Springs in his awesomely cool ev conversion. It was a very upbeat and inspiring ending.
RotEC is a movie not so much about the cars as about the people behind them. It covers the struggles, wins and losses of Bob Lutz of GM (Chevy Volt), Elon Musk (Tesla), Carlos Ghosn (Nissan Leaf) and Greg "Gadget" Abbott (Left Coast Electric). I was struck by several things. First, Bob Lutz and Elon Musk have a huge amount of swagger, personality and self-confidence, which may also be described as being "full of yourself". On the other hand, you probably need a lot of that to make it in the business. Lutz has been around for years in the industry, probably knows everybody, could walk away at any time and retire, but sticks with the job to preserve his "legacy". By the end of the movie, when he does retire, he reminded me of a former President or General, knowing that the world has moved on, and he's no longer critical to its functioning. It's bittersweet, but he might be called out of retirement at any time....
As for Elon Musk, watching him was like watching a stunt flier at an air show who gets really, really close to the ground one too many times. As an aside, his entire family is pretty dynamic. His sister is a movie producer and his brother runs a social media business. Anyway, it seemed like most of the movie was just him telling Tesla employees, "C'mon guys, we have to get this done". I got the impression the movie didn't show the back room stuff where the hardball decisions were made. The movie was pretty good at showing you just how close to the edge of failure he seemed to live, when he had a warehouse full of cars needing rework, and creditors breathing down his neck. In spite of everything, all the people saying this is the end, get ready for bankruptcy, etc., Tesla survives, cars are delivered and now he's bringing up the Model S factory in Fremont CA. The best line in the movie about him was something to the effect of "I have to admire the guy, he's really doing something, as opposed to people who sit around and criticize and tell you how you will fail."
As for Nissan, I've heard Ghosn speak before about the LEAF, but RotEC shows him as slightly cut-throat, which was new for me. He's pretty swaggering as well, but in an outwardly friendly way. I really enjoyed him telling a Nissan Exec, "Every day they aren't building a car is a good day for us." He got Nissan in a crouch, and I think he pounced when Nissan announced the price of the Leaf. Is Th!nk the first casualty? He probably has more up his sleeve...
The guy I like best, and can relate to the best was Greg Abbott, referred to simply as Gadget. Man, if I knew half what that guy knows about building stuff, that would be pretty cool. He had this really great garage that did ev conversions, but it was burned to the ground by what the movie said was random arson. No cars, no tools, no shop, nothing. As he's digging around through the rubble, he finds an undamaged charge controller with its LED light still on. It brought a tear to my eye when he says "With this, I can build a car!" Go man, go. Eventually, he brings up Left Coast Electric again, and the movie closes with him and his wife driving from LA to Palm Springs in his awesomely cool ev conversion. It was a very upbeat and inspiring ending.