“but, until you can drive 300-400 miles, and recharge in 10 minutes or less, and have abundant infrastructure to support that recharging, its a non starter.”
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And that battery has to perform at that rate throughout its lifetime. But that’s the problem with batteries: the older they get, the less charge they hold before they have to be recharged again. And they’re expensive to replace, and hazardous to the environment.
That’s a lesser issue, as long as you are getting a decade or more out of the battery packs, which they can do... Yes there are limits to how many charge cycles a battery has, and yes, they do decline on how much charge they hold over cycles... but even combustion engines lose performance as they age.. unless rebuilt or replaced... as various wear and tear take place.
The real limitation on battery, is the same one that batteries got dropped in cars long long ago (yes there were electric cars in the early age of Autos, but Combustion beat them out of the market place, for the same reasons they are not a major player today).
As a commuter vehicle a full electric vehicle is fine, 50-100 miles between charges is fine for most folks just commuting to and from work... but the reality is cars are expensive purchases, so most folks are not going to or are willing to buy a vehicle that is limited, at least as their primary vehicle.... so a commuter only vehicle has limited appeal. A second vehicle, perhaps, or someone who is willing to accept their only vehicle will ONLY let them drive a limited range. That’s just not the major market.
Tesla attempting to mainstream their cars, will likely BK the company. They are going to go from a toy for the wealthy who enjoy status symbols, into, if they are successful, a commodity, which will destroy their margins, and they don’t have the capacity to produce vehicles in quantities to make it up in volume.
Tesla has as far as I can see it 2 exist strategies... electric does find a place in the market, enough for a big player to slurp them up.... or it doesn’t, and they go bankrupt, if they keep gunning for mainstream vehicles... the other option is to continue to be a niche player making high performances, high margin vehicles in low quantities.
Time will tell how this all plays out... But now that they have gotten rid of their “stores”, not that they had many to begin with, how do the propose to provide service to their vehicles if they are successful and mass market?
Etc etc... You buy an expensive exotic car as your toy/status symbol, you aren’t going to like not being able to get service.. but may tolerate it for the exclusivity... But you buy it as your main vehicle and you can’t get service or costs a fortune to be service, you will move on....
I don’t hate Tesla, or Elon, but until the recharge/infrastructure issues are dealt with, I just don’t see how you become more than just a niche player....