The rare metals for electric vehicle batteries is the driving force behind this rape of the Amazon Basin. Do not make it so urgent to locate, extract, transport and refine these rare earth metals, by maybe not putting the all-out push for electrifying all road vehicles using exotic storage batteries as the propellant.
In terms of engineering, using electric motors to propel road vehicles is an excellent idea. But the means of providing this electric wattage to drive those motors is still sadly lacking, and shall remain so until a means of generating the electricity on-board as needed is made widely available. The hybrid internal combustion engine driving an electrical generator, to power the electric motors at the wheels, was one such approach, but is being quickly abandoned in the haste to phase out ALL “fossil fuels”, a fool’s errand if ever there was. We shall be using various forms of hydrocarbon-based fuels for decades if not centuries to come, because as an energy source, these fuels are compact, easily stored, and have an energy density per pound that just about outmatches any other system, except nuclear.
And well on its way to becoming a sensible reliable type of vehicle. With an appropriately sized smaller battery module and a powerful small displacement turbo engine, the car (or pickup) would have the best of all worlds; good high performance, good gas mileage, all wheel drive and extreme longevity.
Small, constant RPM engines have better fuel economy, and the turbo can provide decent power on demand to drive the electric motors. The best advantage shown by hybrids is the elimination of the obvious weak spot in modern vehicles....the automatic transmission. Most cars in the junkyard are there for that very reason.
Of course longevity and reliability would be the enemy of the manufacturers and the industry. Maybe that's why they are phasing them out.
Now, they are going to cut down the rain forest to mine for Lithium, cobalt, nickle and its okay because it makes green batteries.
I agree with your assessment of the hybrid drive vehicles. I would consider buying almost any TOYOTA hyrid vehicle at this point. I wish they would incorporate them into their Tacoma pickup truck. I am on my third Tacoma. Currently driving a 2012. I am staring to consider a replacement.
There was a $1.5 billion lithium deposit discovered in Maine a while back but our environmental Nazis will never allow it to be mined.