One thing you guys are forgetting is that as electric cars get more popular, our ability to produce electricity will increase as well. It's not like tomorrow we will instantly all be driving electric cars and the output of the electrical grids will fail to accommodate us all... no that's not how it will work at all.
Think of it this way. It has taken 100 years for our current refueling infrastructure to build up to what it is now. Back in 1911 if there were suddenly millions of cars, everyone would have been screwed because no one would have been able to get gasoline, but it didn't happen that way, did it? No.. the number of cars gradually grew, and as a result the number of refueling stations (and the logistics that goes with it all) gradually grew and evolved to accommodate them.
Electric cars are no different. They will start small and gradually increase in numbers and popularity and as a result the electrical grids will gradually grow with them. By the time they get popular enough to threaten our current capacity, technology will evolve to produce more efficient means of producing electricity. As it is right now, we're sucking about as much blood as we can out of petroleum. Yes, yes I know that cars can be more efficient than they currently are but really.. even if the average mileage of each car were to double, it's still only a 'band-aid' on the problem. We'd still need to buy or produce oil and refine it.. but my point is that our technology for using Gasoline has pretty much topped out. The design of the IC engine (for the most part) has changed very little in the last century so in order to evolve to the next step we have to change how the cars are powered.
And nobody is ever expecting electric cars to completely replace IC engines but you'd be foolish not to recognize that electric vehicles are perfectly sufficient for at least 80% of what we use cars for. For example, "grandma" who needs a car only to get to bingo and the grocery store every week would have no need for an IC engine. "Bob" who drives 25 miles to work and back every day would do just fine with an electric car. "Joe" who drives his car from city to city as a traveling salesman would NOT fare well with an electric car, unless he would want to take a four hour break every 200 miles. Personally, I would love an electric car to get to work and back every day with. My dad has an old Festiva sitting in the driveway with a blown engine and I plan on converting it eventually.. that could be a fun project to do!
Electric cars aren't necessarily slow either! I used to have an Escape Hybrid and no I wouldn't pay the price the new ones cost but I happened to get this one used with low mileage for about $8000 below bluebook. Why? Because the dealer that took it in as a trade in didn't notice it was a Hybrid! They quoted me a price based on its non-hybrid counterpart and by the time they realized their error, I was already there with a pen in hand to sign the papers! You should have seen the look on their faces when I asked if they could throw in some new tires!!! I was told "take it or leave it!" haha. Anyway, that thing could do up to 50mph in Electric mode only, and it was pretty snappy! The gas engine provided up to 150HP and the electric motor added 90! Get both working together and it was WAY quicker than the V6 models, and coming to a stop at red lights completely quiet with the engine off was almost therapeutic. Even driving her hard at times yielded 38MPG. Nothing miraculous but not bad for a four wheel drive SUV. It's a shame the ex- took it when she left me as I kind of miss it, but at least I didn't have to pay for it! But just think... an electric Festiva with a 90HP electric motor with INSTANT TORQUE AT ALL SPEEDS! She'd be a screamer!
Anyway, all of the points being made by the anti-electric folks simply aren't valid. Yes there are limitations on electric cars but those limitations only apply to maybe 10-20% of the drivers out there. Yes the electrical supply would not instantly supports millions of electric cars at once BUT since they will evolve gradually, so will the technology for producing electricity. Yes, electric cars are very expensive right now, but will come down in price as battery technology gets cheaper and more mass produced. Right now they are intentionally priced high not only so they don't sell too fast (to keep demand in par with supply) but also so that the manufacturers can recoup some of their R&D investments, as everyone is afraid of the whole California fiasco again (Who killed the electric car?).
I still have yet to see any valid anti-electric points to be made. And no I'm not one of those "green" hippies.. heck I don't even bother to recycle most of the time, but what I do know is that if I had to choose between paying $4/gallon (which will be split between the middle east and the big oil companies) or paying the equivalent of $1.00/gallon to my local electric company (that uses either nuclear power or locally mined coal).. then I'd MUCH rather pay the electric company. Of course I'm not quite willing to shell out $40,000 for a sub-compact car to do just that, but when that becomes affordable I'll be right there for it. The once or twice a year I might actually need an IC powered car I'll just rent one (or keep my old car maintained) and still come out WAY ahead. Even still if I DID shell out $40,000 for a car, the savings in gas and maintenance over the next few years would easily pay for the price difference.. so it's all about perspective.
As far as pollution and all that junk goes... well that technology will evolve hand-in-hand with electrical production technology. I'm not worried about it. That's not even part of my logic here right now.
