A while back someone (my Dad I think) recommended I add Who Killed the Electric Car? to my Netflix queue. I had completely forgoten about it until it showed up in my mailbox last week.

I really knew nothing about General Motors’ foray into the electric car market in the late nineties, but after watching this movie, I really want to get a plug-in hybrid. Basically, GM built the first mass produced 100% electic power car, the EV1. The long and the short of it is GM stopped producing it after California zero emission laws were rescended. The car no longer exists (except a few non-functioning museum cars) because GM actually reposessed every single car (which were all leased and not available for purchase) and literally crushed and shredded them. Check out the trailor below.

Well today I came across this article about a new Nissan electric car that will be unveiled this Sunday (and suppossedly available for purchase in 2010). The article has little to do with the car itself and more to do with an iPhone app Nissan has built. Basically, while you car is charging you can monitor the battery power so you will know when it’s all charged.

Nissan seems to just be scratching the surface with what they can do (the only other announced feature of the software is to remotely control the air conditioning). This is the kind of stuff companies need to start doing with smart phones. There are so many apps that are rehashed and non-innovative…I can’t wait until we start seeing more smart integration like this.