Until there is a power grid with recharge stations every 100miles, I don't see electric drive replacing petrol cars anywhere other than in the cities. With Americans driving more annual miles than in almost any other country the lack of recharge infrastructure is a handicap. I think an option could be battery swap stations like other countries do with compressed fuel bottles (butane, propane, natural gas), however, as there is not a way to develop the system gradually, development will incur an astronomical upfront cost.
With the same material and technological input used in electric vehicles, petrol cars have so much room for improvement. Electric motors are running 97-99% efficient while petrol engines use only 23-25% of the available BTU's. If car engines were 90% efficient (which has been done in single applications) there would be less energy loss than electric with the main reason being that there is loss and cost at every energy conversion. In 2019 there were over 280,000,000 registered vehicles in the US. The Tesla 3 as an example uses 50 kWh for a max range of 250 miles. Multiplied by even a conservative 200,000,000 units would require more power than can currently be supplied. If electric vehicles are the future of transport, nuclear power plants will be required in vast numbers to supply the power demands.
Sorry about the length. I'm fascinated by the topic of energy forms and its consumption.
