Root problem -- Like Scott said, ”Too many people”. To political to tackle that one. Mother nature will fix, in her own good time.
Current battery technology is not suitable for competing with oil based gas as a car fuel.
Trying to justify electric power in a subsidized environment is like trying to quantify farts.
(Year old data) Honda has a program in SoCal, offering natural gas powered conventional cars for sale at normal unsubsidized prices. A low pressure house gas line is used with a compressor to give a partial fill up overnight. The cost of the compressor unit is about $2000.00. No one mentioned -- How about buying two compressors?”
Natural gas is the only thing that makes sense right now and for the next 10 years. We have a lot of natural gas. If the cracking extraction process does not get greedy and pollute the water tables and ruin the reputation of the product, we can get and distribute natural gas now. The natural gas stock market is slow and boring. The politicians do not champion natural gas. Politicians do subsidies and pay offs. They are not working for us.
Methane hydrate lays thick on the bottom of vast deepwater sea beds. That is natural gas and water under pressure. Rejecting that the human race will continue to breed infinitely, there is a near infinite supply of methane hydrate there for the picking. Technology is needed, but it is conventional not magical, like an unobtainable ideal battery. Sorry, the chemistry and physics just are not there.
Look at all of the quickly improving technologies we are use to. Batteries have only improved in small increments. Even high temp batteries with lots of risky side effects, are not capable of the power densities and long life, need in cars. Pull the subsidies and you could not make enough 10 foot poles for the Volts and Leafs. Soon the Priususes will be needing to be re-batteried. Who will pay and how much? Top Gear drove a Prius hard and got about 6 mpg.
But don’t get me started.
Roy