To be more than a city vehicle an EV needs to have an “honest” 350 mile range with, lights, AC and wipers on. And it need to be rechargeable in under 20 minutes.
Or it needs to be able to draw power through the road.
And I am an EV fan.
Until a compact on-board electrical power generation unit can be installed, competitive in cost and reliability on a level with the ICE vehicle, electricity-driven automobiles will never have much more of a market than they now have.
Now, electric power directly driving the wheels is a fine idea, from an engineering standpoint, each wheel has its own motor, and a computer system could maintain maximum traction to each wheel under all conditions. The problem is the means of getting the wattage to the drive motors. Batteries are not yet at the degree of reliability to provide that, which is why the on-board power generation system is suggested.
This can take many forms. Some version of an internal or external combustion power plant (steam engine comes to mind, as well as a Stirling cycle closed system), and a heat source to set the engine operating, which then spins an electric current generator, which supplies the wattage needed to drive the motors.
But no, the engineers are locked into a plodding and grudging attempt to make a battery system, that this time, maybe it will work. And it never really has.
Yep. The other factor is battery replacement. What is the expected life span and replacement cost. If after say 5 years the battery needs replacement but it costs close to the value of the car it’s not worth it.