[thackney]

That would also require a significant technical improvement in batteries. Cheap electricity is not going to be enough.

Charging time is still going to be a major factor as well.

[riverdawg]

“That would also require a significant technical improvement in batteries. Cheap electricity is not going to be enough.

Charging time is still going to be a major factor as well.”

Exactly what I was thinking. At the present, most of us are used to spending five minutes “charging” our gasoline engines at the pump, and then driving 250-300 miles before the next “charge”. Spending 30-60 minutes at a “fast” charging station every 250 miles is a non-starter for me, no pun intended ...

[RayChuang88]

Fortunately, battery companies are going to start soon producing batteries based on dry-electrode lithium-ion technology using graphene sheets and ultracapacitor technology using carbon nanotubes, which may increase the per charge range of an electric car by three to four times without going to a larger battery pack. Also, we may see a switch from AC charging to DC charging, which means instead of waiting 3 to 7 hours, it could be as short as under ten minutes! :-)

In short, within the next 20-25 years the technology will have matured enough that most personal vehicles will long-range electric drive systems.