Plug in hybrids might work up north where people already have to plug in their cars a lot, but down south (where the population of the US is moving) it’s a non-starter. I’ve never parked my car a safe extension cord distance from an outlet under my control, most of the south is like that.
The southern (especially the south west) part of the country is also a problem for your rezoning idea, rezoning can change the future but it can’t change the past. No amount of rezoning now will make Tucson or Phoenix or LA not sprawling cities. Because of how far and wide these cities populations are there is simply no method of public transportation that would be useful to the citizens that would be a gigantic waste of time and fuel. When you have a population density 1/10 of NYC the bus (train, whatever) to passenger ratio just doesn’t work you need too many vehicles to cover the area and they’ll get too few passengers to make it worthwhile. And there’s no fix for that short of razing the cities and starting over from scratch, and that plan might face a lot of resistance.
I could live like that when I was young and single...but my wife and I wouldn’t want to raise our (future) kids there. We’re more traditional, we want a real yard for kids to play in, swingsets, parks, that kind of stuff...not some high density urban concrete jungle.
A lot of people are like that, and I don't think my re-zoning answer is likely to happen. However, this exercise was to imagine a post oil society, with the author only offering a 19th century alternative. If we really ran out of oil, it would become cost effecetive to rebuild our cities.
Beijing is a city where only 4% of the population of 15 million own cars. Yes, it is polluted, but from factors that would not translate over here.
As for not having a pace to plug in a plug-in, we'll be surprised how fast people will make changes to their houses/apartment buildings to adopt to them. Having a house without a convenient way to plug in a car will be like a house without a place for a washer and dryer.