If we could build a couple of hundred nuclear power plants that would make electric cars practical.
True...but not likely.
We do need to build the Nukes but it would take quite a bit more than that.
We would also need to make huge upgrades to the nations electric grid.
Most people would be plugging in their cars at home and charging the battery over night.
The cars I have read about would need a 220 volt hook up to charge the battery overnight. Most houses do not have a 220 V outlet available in their garage (possible exception of cloths dryer).
If more than a few homes in a given neighborhood started charging their cars at night it might become necessary to add additional transformers and higher voltage power lines to their neighborhood.
Considering that the California power grid is already over taxed and under powered it can hardly afford to be pushing electric cars at this time.
The early episodes of this strip were adapted pretty faithfully in the first Buster Crabbe-starring serial, with its spark-sputtering spaceships and with Flash condemned to shoveling uranium into an atomic furnace (I always loved that part).
Like the author, I always loved that scene, too.