For those of you who don't know, Chris Paine wrote and directed the film "Who Killed the Electric Car" which chronicled the demise of GM's EV-1 program.  The film basically villainized GM and intensified their already bad PR.  There is little doubt that Paine's film helped to spark the Volt program.  It is also the case that the act of watching that film for the first time sends people to the pages of this site and leads to my receiving some often bitter emails.  Here's a random recent example:

I just finished watching the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car". It appears General Motors was the primary killer!  Accordingly, I suspect GM might do it again, given the right amount of incentives!!

As you might expect, my enthusiasm for the GM Chevy Volt has diminished.

Anyway it turns out at the GM Centennial last week Chris Paine was an invited guest where he participated in a roundtable discussion on the future of transportation.

Many may remember that GM had previously announced they planned to let selected media drive Volt mules this summer, and it never seemed to happen, or did it?

I was told that a group of selected people, variably referred to as "VIPs" or "technical people" indeed had the pleasure of driving Volt mules last week.  This group included Chris Paine.

I also observed Paine and his crew filming interviews for a sequel to his movie, to be called something along the lines of "Who Saved the Electric Car".

It looks like GM is really starting to pull a 180 on this PR thing.