Hyperdrive

Electric Vehicles Are Still Waiting for Hollywood’s Casting Call

  • Gas-guzzling sports cars remain dominant on the silver screen
  • EVs tend to get ‘more pejorative than celebratory’ treatment

James Dean and Natalie Wood in “Rebel Without a Cause.”

Source: Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock

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Ever since James Dean reveled in teen angst in his Mercury coupe in the 1955 classic “Rebel Without a Cause,” cars have been pumping exhaust into pop culture.

A decade later it was Steve McQueen losing hubcaps in a Bullitt Mustang, then Burt Reynolds burst into box office lore as the cop-fleeing Bandit behind the wheel of a Pontiac Trans Am. This past weekend, Jason Statham swerved a McLaren 720S under two tractor trailers to escape the motorcycle-riding antagonist in the latest Fast and Furious film, “Hobbs & Shaw.”