Okay let me put my stamp on this one. First I'm not one who cares much what others say or do or what laws may be written now days. Once they got so corrupted I quit caring, legal, illegal who cares they don't. I'll keep my gas and diesels until they die or I do and several of them are older than I am and I can likely keep them going until after I'm gone.
Now far as EV's go they can be a lot of fun, instant torque. They are also nice in the NO NOISE department. FOR THINGS LIKE GOLF CARTS AND SIDE BY SIDES electric can be a blast. Even better when it's self solar powered with it's own panel.
On the flip side there is no infrastructure in this country to handle EVs for the masses and they are USELESS for long distance at this time.
The biggest threat to keeping the internal combustion vehicle going will sourcing the fuel. When the nut jobs declare hydrocarbons can only be used "classic cars" and then there will be fuel available for the rest. I wouldn't be surprised if they do that.
Arrrggghhg!!!
What gets my panties in a bind is the mad rush from a standardized energy fueling scheme to a yet to be determined standard.
1) With normal vehicles we can go from empty to full in a matter of minutes.
2) The fuel nozzle is compatible with every car regardless of make.
3) The amount of energy per unit fuel is assured by standards of weights and measures.
The powers in control are skipping down a blind path tossing standards to the wind. It drives me nuts when people don't think ahead when doing simple stuff let alone big changes like going to EVs.
Let's me start by solving issue #1, rapid refresh. I don't feel we have to develop any new break throughs. By adapting existing ideas to an EV answer
A) Laptops are capable of monitoring the state of their batteries predicting how much time is left how fast they are charging, the temp etc. The tech needs only be adapted.
B) Battery powered tools use a standard interface that allows quickly swapping a battery for a fresh one. If an industry standard form factor was established for car and truck batteries, a refueling station could become a battery changing (not charging) station.
Imagine if you will an Indy car pulling into the pits and an automated assembly pulls a spent battery and inserts a fully charged battery. A properly thought out standard could be implemented for street EVs.
I will leave this now because I have dribbled on too long.
Ben