I am more interested in logical facts instead of trendy politically correct ideals that run contrary to the laws of physics. If you are looking for the energy density of batteries to improve, you will be waiting until the Almighty to re-writes the Periodic Table. Run the numbers between the Chevy Sonic and the Chevy Bolt in up front cost and operational cost over 8 years and 150,000 miles. The electric can't touch the gasser.
And, I'll take my diesel cars (and truck) over gassers. BUT...
While for many these statements are valid, for others not. It really depends on one's needs/requirements. I figure everyone here should know that electric motors are almost impossible to kill (well, w/o extreme abuse they seem to nearly last forever). Battery technology, as you note, isn't gaining as much as all the over-optimistic types would suggest (talk to Samsung
), though battery reclamation is said to be vastly better than in the past. If I had a nice solar power setup (off-grid; I was going to go that route years ago, but it didn't materialize [didn't move to where I was aiming for]) I'd look to leverage That investment and go with an EV. And the point here is that, yes, up-front investments sometimes don't look so good; but, many times, as we know, things change and our earlier calculations don't hold due to changing dynamics (economics) of the world. When fossil fuel usage drops, due to aging populations and less people being able to afford their use, you start losing the leverage of economies of scale, and decreased production monkey-hammers things, causing per unit costs to increase -> higher end costs (follow the swirling vortex downward).
I wouldn't likely touch a Chevy Volt. I might consider a Nissan Leaf. But, as I stated, my diesels serve me very well: I'm about $0.05/mile; they're fully depreciated, fully paid for; I expect to get another 150k miles out of them (300k miles).
I don't expect to ever see electric trucks (semis) or electric tractors, but that is based on what today looks like (don't count out dedicated electric lines for moving stuff- kind of like the electric passenger trains in some cities). I see the probability as being less than 50%.