They already got a super efficient carbon nanotube battery working. It charges 100 times faster than a conventional battery and is also at least 100 times more durable. In the next few years they'll hit mass production and that will be the era of the electric motor and internal combustion will become the next steam engine.
I think the "few years" is overly optimistic. It would take decades for the switch to electric vehicles.
Then the question is.....can the Power-Grid handle the added load of 255 MILLION electric vehicles?
Answer: No. You are looking a complete replacement of the entire US electric grid. 6% of all electricity generated is "lost in transmission". So in reality....you need to generate electricity for 270 MILLION vehicles to handle the switchover to electric vehicles. That would be equivalent to adding 90 Million houses onto the grid. An increase of 72% total demand. Our current power grid would collapse without a total re-design and conversion to high-efficient generation and transmission materials.
Second issue: 65% of the electricity generated in the US is from fossil fuels Coal and Natural Gas. The immediate impact on the environment would catastrophic to meet the new demand of these eco-friendly, clean running electric cars. That is just in the US....imagine the rest of the World switching over at the same time. Wind and Solar wouldn't be able to put a dent in the new levels of electrical demand. The only alternative would be nuclear. So now you are truly "Living Under A Dome" Nuclear cooling towers in every town....just waiting for an Earthquake, Tsunami, Landslide or mechanical failure not to mention the added radioactive waste generated by building 6 times the number of nuclear reactors we have today!!! This undertaking alone would take decades of studies, politics and approvals to get done.
Will the dream of Electric cars be realized. Probably....will it be soon? I do not believe so. Barring the outbreak of WWIII it is easily 50 to 100 years in the future. Think about the cost and effort to replace the existing 65% fossil facilities alone. Now add another 72% more capacity for all the power generation stations. Replace/reconfigure EVERY high-power transfer line, every power distribution station in the US and every feed to every town and city in America.
The power grid in the US has been put on the political "back shelf" for decades. Just like the aging road/interstate infrastructure. We get failing grades on bridges, dams, highways, tunnels, levees, etc. So even if we do switch over to all-electric vehicles...we won't have sufficient road-ways to drive them on. I would say "hovercraft" or "flying car" development makes way more sense than electric cars. Hovercraft/flying cars don't need roads or bridges...so we can tear out most of them and leave some for interstate transfer of goods/people on rail and diesel rigs and personally owned antique gasoline vehicles. The cost savings from the reduction in road/bridge infrastructure alone would easily pay for development and production costs.
The internal combustion engine has been around for over 100 years....and it has another 100 years to go before people will say...."Remember when......"
