ExclusiveExploring Electric Vehicles

Hello, everyone. Welcome to YouTalksAboutMovies. Let's savor films together and reflect on life through cinema. Today, we bring you a special episode, an exclusive interview that uncovers the inner workings of the electric vehicle industry. We explore the documentary Exploring Electric Vehicles with its producer, Mr. Yi Yuan, who joins our program to recommend and introduce this film, which may have a profound impact on our future way of life. At first, I believed electric vehicles were simply an intelligent, environmentally friendly product of future development. But after watching the film, I realized the reality is not as simple as imagined. As a seasoned producer, after years of experience and through what seemed like a coincidental opportunity, Mr. Yi Yuan and his team began producing this documentary, which comprehensively exposes the electric vehicle industry. According to Mr. Yi Yuan, before making the film, he shared the same mindset as the general public believing electric vehicles were a revolutionary product. However, his investigation revealed many surprising facts. What motivated your team to plan and produce this film? At the time, my understanding of electric vehicles was actually the same as that of the general public. I believed they were a revolutionary technological product. After doing some research for this documentary, I discovered that much of my understanding was inaccurate. So that's what inspired you and your team to continue exploring and researching this field? Yes, exactly. During the entire preliminary phase, it was actually very shocking. At the time, electric vehicles were seen as a revolutionary technology that could bring benefits to humanity, an advanced technology that also protects the environment and saves energy. That was the initial idea. But once we began researching, we found that in some aspects, electric vehicles do live up to what mainstream media reports. However, what electric vehicles represent is not just the product itself, but the entire supply chain behind it. If you look electric vehicles from a supply chain perspective, their past and present are far from simple. Beyond being just a means of transportation, electric vehicles are not merely a personal choice to me. They also represent a philosophy, a choice that claims to be environmentally responsible and socially responsible, serving dual purposes. During the production process, we discovered there are many issues behind this concept that require deep reflection. The second surprise I mentioned is that electric vehicles made me realize we cannot evaluate a product based only on surface level understanding. We must look at the entire supply chain. Electric vehicles need electricity to charge, and where that electricity comes from becomes critical. We originally thought we were using electricity to protect the environment, but the electricity often comes from petroleum-related products. That's a major issue. Moreover, electric vehicles are the largest electricity-consuming product in a household far exceeding the second largest consumer. Their power consumption is extremely alarming. So do electric vehicles really save electricity and energy? The third point is that in mainstream media and government promotion, there is almost unanimous advocacy for electric vehicles. In the media and public discourse I encountered, I heard virtually no negative evaluations. That shocked me. Why is the narrative so uniform? After finishing the film and reflecting on it, another surprising fact emerged. Governments are using public funding to promote electric vehicles. For example, if you buy a $35,000 electric vehicle, the government may give you a $5,000 or $8,000 tax rebate. In other words, the government helps citizens buy these cars using taxpayers' money, which comes from all taxpayers. In other words, this is no longer a normal free market economic behavior, but an economic action subsidized by the government using taxpayers' money. That was very surprising to me. I understand that many countries use this kind of government-driven approach to promote the industrialization of electric vehicles. Yes, and that led me to a fundamental question. Why do electric vehicles need government promotion? If the product is really as good as the media claims, it should stand the test of the market. Consumers would naturally choose it with their own money without government intervention. When I buy a traditional gasoline car, the government doesn't subsidize me, so why do electric vehicles require this? That's a question worth exploring. As an emerging industry, governments may feel the need to rapidly support its development, but they haven't fully considered the comprehensive supply chain issues revealed in exploring electric vehicles. I was also shocked after watching it. When governments use taxpayers' money, they need taxpayer support. Whether the public supports this matters. Taxpayer money isn't for the government alone to decide it belongs to the taxpayers. Governments should fully inform taxpayers of both the pros and cons of a product. Taxpayers have the right to know. This documentary isn't meant to tell viewers whether electric vehicles are good or bad, but to provide a more comprehensive way of thinking so viewers can form their own judgments after watching. With such information, I can stand in a better position to decide whether I want to make such a purchase. The film also deepened our understanding of how the CCP controls the current global energy landscape. If electric vehicles become mainstream, the CCP could dominate the global economic lifeline, exerting comprehensive control and I believe this kind of control isn't limited to electric vehicles. Any internet-connected technology can become a tool of control. If you buy a network-connected product made in China, there may be a so-called backdoor that allows malicious actors to access it. That backdoor could be in an electric vehicle, a phone app, or various other forms. If the product contains chips made in China, it's worth questioning whether those chips include backdoors. That's why we even interviewed national security experts in the film. From a national security perspective, electric vehicles, likely a frontier of the next technological revolution, require even deeper scrutiny regarding safety. In today's world, what matters most is information. If we use chips or electronic products made by the CCP, they can easily gain access to our information. Yes. For example, conversations inside your car could be recorded. You might think casual talk doesn't matter, but you could be telling your family, your bank account number, or other sensitive information which could be obtained by someone with malicious intent. We also mentioned the possibility of remotely controlling vehicles. These are just some potential methods of control. There could be far more. Every place you go could potentially be monitored. That reminds me of a film I recommended before, called Upgrade, where a smart car is remotely controlled, causing an accident. During production, we worked with an Austrian audio expert who drove a German-made BMW electric vehicle. One day, during extreme weather, the car automatically slowed down, pulled over, and stopped against his will. This can already happen today. If such control fell into the hands of malicious actors or an authoritarian government, what would that look like? Your analysis of the future of the electric vehicle industry offers people diverse perspectives when making choices. Electric vehicles shouldn't develop in a centralized way. The entire supply chain must advance together. Exactly. While electric vehicles may have low emissions and don't rely on traditional fuels like oil or coal, the electricity they consume must come from somewhere. If that can be resolved, EVs could be beneficial. But there are other issues, such as batteries. Batteries require large amounts of rare earth minerals, which are highly polluting to mine. Battery production creates additional heavy pollution. Moreover, batteries typically last only 8-10 years. After that, disposal causes further environmental pollution. How to effectively recycle these highly polluting products is another challenge. Electric vehicles must be evaluated by considering the entire supply chain to determine whether they truly suit today's society. Very well said. This way of thinking can also be applied to other emerging industries. If this mindset helps our audience, that would be wonderful. Thank you very much, Mr. Yi Yuan, for joining us. Bye-bye. Through Mr. Yi Yuan's introduction, we learned that this documentary presents the pros and cons of electric vehicles from a neutral and rational perspective, through the eyes of radio host and columnist Larry Elder. Many countries aggressively promote electric vehicles using taxpayer money without informing the public of deeper issues. This film fills that gap, giving people the right to know and letting them decide for themselves. What left the strongest impression on me was the CCP's control over energy and mineral resources. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, CCP-controlled operations supply 60% of the world's cobalt, a key element in EV batteries using child labor and brutal conditions, creating so-called blood batteries. If more people buy electric vehicles, global energy could fall further under CCP control, affecting future geopolitical dynamics, perhaps as described in the documentary called How the Devil Rules the World. However, I believe the US will not stand by, and energy independence will be key. The film also reveals frequent battery fires and explosions in EVs, which are difficult to extinguish and have caused fatalities. Immature technology, cost-cutting, fraud, and subsidies lure consumers into paying the price. For example, media recently reported a cargo ship carrying 3,000 vehicles, including hundreds of EVs catching fire, with the source traced to the EV deck. Such incidents are not isolated. Unless technology can completely eliminate these risks, EVs remain a potential time bomb. Exploring electric vehicles presents a comprehensive, in-depth view of the industry, allowing viewers to make objective, rational decisions.