In 1996, electric cars began to appear on roads all over California. They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust, and ran without gasoline... Ten years later, these cars were destroyed.

A sequel to 2006's Who Killed the Electric Car?, director Chris Paine once again looks at electric vehicles. Where in the last film electric cars were dismissed as uneconomical and unreliable, and were under multiple attacks from government, the auto industry, and from energy companies who didn't want them to succeed, this film chronicles, in the light of new changes in technology, the world economy, and the auto industry itself, the race - from both major car companies like Ford and Nissan, and from new rising upstarts like Tesla - to bring a practical consumer EV to market.