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Some of the early EV companies featured easily changeable batteries - it took minutes, not hours, to switch out a depleted battery for a fully charged one, and you’re back on the road. That’s the way to go if you want to extend EV range.

I respectfully disagree. We're already at a usable range for trips for the more populated areas (read: many fast charging options). For example, I recently made a long trip (1,700 miles) in our EV. The only time my charging took longer than 15 minutes was when I was stopped longer anyway to do work on my laptop. I stayed there for a full hour and wound up charging to 100% (after 80%, the last 20% takes a lot longer, but I had to do some work anyway so I stayed on the charger longer than I had to).

But that kind of trip with nothing but speedy charging stops happens only if you plan ahead of time. And only on trips that have a lot of fast chargers. I probably wouldn't be able to make that drive in 32 hours (driving and charging/break time, not counting the 10 hours I stayed at a hotel and the aforementioned work time) if those 1,700 miles were through remote areas in the midwest or west Texas (the last time I looked at driving through those areas). For a trip like that I'd take my gas pickup. Likewise, the gas pickup will be preferable if charging prices increase and gas prices decrease.