[ASSURAS] Much of the modern history of the electric vehicle has been captured on film, by environmentalist, documentary filmmaker, and full-time EV fan Chris Paine. Five years ago, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" accused U.S. automakers -- primarily General Motors -- of crushing EV development in the 1990s, figuratively and literally, by declaring electrics like GM's EV1 unprofitable and stifling battery development. Paine even staged a mock funeral for the electric car to make his point.

Now, the EV is back, and so is Chris Paine with a new movie. For this one, Paine had unprecedented access to auto titans -- yes, including GM. I spent some time with Paine to talk about his new documentary and to get his take on the future of the EV.

[Dramatic soundtrack plays]

[PAINE] There's a degree of excitement around electric vehicles we hadn't seen before.

[ASSURAS] Chris Paine's EV act II is "Revenge of the Electric Car," a title that suggests continued bad blood between automakers and environmentalists clamoring for clean cars. Far from it. Instead, former General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz...

[LUTZ] We're going to have to get the lithium ion technology together.

[ASSURAS] ...Nissan's Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn...

[GHOSN] I don't want to wake up competition.

[ASSURAS] And Elon Musk, PayPal founder and now the driving force behind high-end, all-electric Tesla...

[MUSK] Until we see every car on the road being electric, we will not stop.

[ASSURAS] ...opened their boardrooms and homes to Paine's cameras for three years, starting in 2008.

[MUSK] We want to make this technology and electric cars affordable to as many people as possible.

[ASSURAS] The time frame mirrors U.S. consumers' recent slow shift to hybrids and plug-ins as gas prices continue to fluctuate.

Here's Bob Lutz -- he doesn't believe in global warming. He's a car guy, it's not that he's an environmentalist. He wants to make the EV work -- Why?

[PAINE] Because the core reason of the electric car has nothing to do with the environment, it has to do with not importing oil. So, if you're like a "real American," like Bob Lutz has a certain kind of classic American-ness about him, it's about keeping energy, energy money here. So I think Bob understands that, if we can power these things off of the electrical grid instead of Middle East oil, that's a good thing.

[ASSURAS] Paine says EVs are a U-turn for auto executives keen on capitalizing on a market in the making. Take Nissan LEAF's champion Carlos Ghosn.

[PAINE] Carlos is also not an environmentalist. He doesn't wear that on his badge. He's about the spreadsheet and the numbers. Carlos, in our film, makes sort of an unguarded comment in a car.

[GHOSN] The public is expecting this from us. It's expecting this from us. It's expecting that car manufacturers step up.

[PAINE] They're expecting car makers to step up and provide cars that are more responsible in terms of its use of petrol and the environment.

[ASSURAS] Talk about stepping up...

Hi, I'm Thalia.

Paine himself not only owns a trio of EVs -- more about that in a minute -- his eggs come from a backyard roost near a garden with a composter. His remodeled 1950s-era house overlooking Los Angeles boasts kitchen cabinets of bamboo and energy-efficient appliances. An eco-flaw, though -- plastic, which comes from petroleum, protects valuable fossils embedded in the countertops.

Uh-oh, you just busted your philosophy.

[PAINE] Hell, I'm hardly a purist. We use lots of oil here.

[ASSURAS] Hot water and electricity are provided 100% in the summer, he says, 60% in the winter, by rooftop solar systems. These panels here power the entire house and all the electric cars in the garage.

[ASSURAS] Paine's lifestyle came largely from growing up in an outdoorsy family conscious about the way they were living, he says.

[PAINE] There's a lot of messages I got when I was growing up that maybe a little bit of environmental awareness was a good idea. And then in 1995, I drove this General Motors EV1, and I thought, wow, this is really a better car.

[ASSURAS] Fast forward 15 years and we hit 60 miles an hour in less than four seconds in Paine's Tesla Roadster.

Whoa! That is fast!

At about $120,000 a pop, the Roadster isn't for the average driver. The new Model S is still pricey, at about 50 grand, even after a $7,500 federal tax credit. But Paine argues, other brands are affordable.

[PAINE] The LEAF is $32,000. And there's a $7,500 tax credit. And in California, there was $2,500 to $5,000. So the LEAF we have -- and I paid full retail price for it -- ended up costing about $24,000.

[ASSURAS] Paine also dismisses range anxiety, that fear of running out of juice. He points to GM's strategy in designing the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt, the first 35 miles or so on battery power, long distances dependent only on gas stations.

[PAINE] So it means it never runs out of juice because you always put in gasoline if you want to go farther. So, I think things like range anxiety are part of the mythos pushing back on this.

[ASSURAS] And what does Paine think about zero-emission claims from some EV companies, even though most of the electricity to run their cars comes from fossil-fueled power plants?

[PAINE] The issue is the word "zero emissions." That's the ideal of what they can be, if you have solar power. But I think the fact that you're guaranteed 50% less emissions is, you know, 100% improvement.

[ASSURAS] So the bottom line is, Paine is an unabashed EV booster. But will the electric car's revenge be fleeting without continued government support?

[PAINE] You have to have the government leading this. The car industry is not like making an iPhone that's a $200 appliance that you could probably -- You're talking about $20,000, $50,000 industrial machinery that's trying to break into a monopoly industry that's a hundred years old. You've got to incent this technology or it won't happen.

[ASSURAS] Chris Paine has answers for just about everything to do with electric vehicles, including where to plug them in when you park on the street. He says, look to Europe, where companies like Siemens AG are building parking meters that double as EV charging stations.