but it still has to take FOREVER to charge and there are no places to charge
If you could buy it here BYD would sell you a 5 passenger sedan that goes 80 miles all electric then switches to a small generator to go another 1200+ miles at 100 mpg. The price in China is $15,000. This is in a full sized sedan.
Given than less than 7% of Americans drive more than 30 miles per day the vast majority of people would never need to fill up but for the once or twice a year they take a trip over 80 miles. America is a urban nation 75% of the population lives in urban census area’s.
A 120V plug would put 30 miles of range back in 5 hours time at 12 amp draw so safely under the 80% rating of a 15 amp plug. Every garage in America by code has at least two 120v 15amp plugs. It is irrelevant as the battery could be charged on the move with the onboard generator which when it’s running is only run at its peak efficiency point by design, it’s only job is to charge the pack and then shut off. The 15 gallon tank can be filled in under 3 minutes with generator fuel. You get all the benefits of EV acceleration and regenerative braking plus virtually unlimited range at peak efficiency for any ICE engine in production the BYD generator engine is 43% tank to electrons that’s a world best the typical gasoline engine driving a mechanical transmission is under 20% tank to wheels closer to 12% Google scholar has a dozen sources for BSFC data and tank to wheel exergy.
https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10318
Phone and laptop batteries lose 20-40 percent of their storage capacity over 2-3 years. However they are in use 5 hours or so a day. A car is likely only in use 1 hour a day. So car batteries last long enough that other parts of the car fail around the same time as the battery. But a commercial vehicle is in use 8 hours a day, so a battery will fail after 2-3 years. Who wants to buy a Mack truck for 300k that will always fail after 2 years. Batteries cannot replace diesel engines which routinely get 20,000 hours of use without failing.
https://atldiesel.com/blogs/news/what-is-the-common-lifespan-of-a-diesel-engine