No doubt utility companies are chomping at the bit to get at the market. But there are a couple of things that are going to be HUGE issues. Electric cars will be essentially coal powered cars. We can go through all the wishful thinking we want about wind and solar but they are nowhere near as efficient as coal and the demands that electric vehicles would place on the system would force utilities to rely even more heavily on coal. Second, Lithium is a very plentiful element but it is rarely found in concentrations that make it commercially extractable. At the moment, the niche market for Lithium is easily supplied, start putting electric cars on the market in mass with very large Lithium batteries and there will be critical Lithium supply problems. Not only that, as Lithium is never found in a very concentrated form, the environmental impact of extracting it is significant (which is probably why Bolivia, which has the world's largest known Lithium reserves, is reticent about opening up it's territory to extraction). So, look for the cost of Lithium batteries to rise significantly if we ever get to the point where electric cars are produced in mass. of course, the other issue is the profound difference between an electric car and a gas powered car; the latter wins in every category. More convenient, more flexible, more powerful, better for the environment (yes, that is true..oil burns cleaner than coal) and on and on and on.aknowledgeableperson wrote: What rock have you been living under? The future will be here before you know it. Utilities already making plans for electric cars.
My guess is that electric cars will be a requirement for the future because gasoline will be too expensive to use as a fuel at some point. At that point, most people given the absurdity of trying to live a suburban life without the one thing that made it possible (gasoline powered cars) will give up due to the lack of convenience and we will see a transition to denser more compact cities where public transportation can be implemented, goods can be delivered to business's more efficiently etc....