An electric car is like a boat’s bow wave...always out in front and out of reach.
Basic electrochemistry tells us that a battery is never going to be able to store the energy in the same mass that a hydrocarbon fuel can and won’t ever be able to be charged at the same rate as pumping liquid hydrocarbons into a tank.
Liquid fuels are tailor-made for transportation.
If we had serious oil problems, the smart thing would be to make liquids from coal for a hundred years. Compressed natural gas makes a lot of sense, too — easy to transport and distribute locally via pipelines. Easy to pump up to high pressures for on-board storage.
Generating electricity a thousand miles away, taking the transmission and distribution losses, and “pumping” it into a battery is just plain nonsensical.
The original argument was to reduce city pollution due to tailpipe emissions, but that argument is gone due to automotive emission controls and cleaner fuels. There is NO justification for EVs. Not cost, not range, not convenience, not practicality. EVs are just a liberal wet dream.
1. Transportation and distribution losses are not unique to electricity. If you consider the amount of energy expended to get the energy from the ground and into your tank the distribution losses are greater for oil than they are for electricity.
2. Batteries will probably never achieve the energy density of liquid fuels, however, the most efficient gasoline engines still only transmit 25-30 percent of their energy to the wheels, whereas electric motors transmit around 90% of the energy to the wheels. So, batteries don’t have to achieve the same energy density to get the same number of miles on a charge as a ICE would on a tank. (Admittedly, they will have to improve to at least 400W/Kg. with a 50% reduction in cost) to make a 300 mile electric car practical for most Americans.) However, when that happens, and it will, the per mile cost of fuel 3 cents vs. 12 cents and the greatly reduced maintenance cost will make the electric car competitive for most applications.