Here there is an assumption the future of EV is one where they recharge some electrical energy, on the vehicle, storage device.
Not sure that ever will be more than a niche application on several counts.
- The infrastructure costs and viability.
- Physically recharging streets full of vehicles for those with no on property parking.
- The destruction of the planet to acquire the massive quantities of battery minerals needed for the world's cars.
- Again the planet's destruction from acquiring the copper or a similarly efficient conductor mineral to shunt around the amount of power in all the required cabling infrastructure.
I suspect the solution for the masses, who can't recharge, and indeed the planet itself is going to go a refuelling route. An EV that takes on board, speedily and at a fuelling station something that can fuel the generation on board of electrical power.
Here the present natural choice is using hydrogen, there being plenty of water in the world to access for its production and little environmental damage taking some of the sea and returning it as water after use.
I'm sorry but I cant be sure what you are trying to say in your first paragraph. Can you try again please?
But in response to the remainder of your post I certainly don't think its going to be easy for everyone to change to EV's, in fact its going to mean adopting some new ways of owning and using cars, and of course for caravanners in the UK, the present choices of vehicles are all virtually non starters.
But we are just at the beginning of this new EV revolution, and it takes time for things to be worked out. Considering how long we have been driving ICE cars look how much development they are continuing to go through even though politically their days are numbered. It's only fair to assume that as time goes by the diversity and viability of EV from an operational perspective will only improve.
As far as the infrastructural goes, the National Grid has publicly stated they have the transmission capability to cope with the national EV demand, where they might struggle at the moment is with generation capacity at peak times. However with off peak charging they're actually quite pleased as it will balance the generator loading better. With further development of smart charging, it could actually help even more by facilitating peak load clipping where some of the capacity of the cars connected to the grid can help to supply local peak demands.
With almost any human mechanical endeavour there is a cost to the planet, but again the doom merchants are making unfair comparisons about the impact of sourcing materials for batteries. I have not studied in detail the actual figures, but whilst there must be some impact, its likely to be less than the damage wreaked sourcing and transporting fossil fuels. Unlike fossil fuels, which are one use only, batteries can be used many times, and even when they are no longer usable for cars, they can have a second or even third life in less demanding applications and even after that their components are highly recyclable.
Conductors, compared to the total annual industrial usage of such materials the additional material required to provide the charging infrastructure is small.
I believe Hydrogen will have its place for some users, but I don't see a trend yet that suggests its going to be the major fuel for cars, and my reasons for that are the technology to extract hydrogen, transport it and distribute it is complex and expensive.
Whilst the raw materials are plentiful, actually producing the gas in viable quantities is presently significantly less efficient than charging and using batteries. I acknowledge that just as we are in the infancy of EV's, HV's will also see further development, but until the energy required to crack hydrogen can be slashed, it will always be EV's that will be more popular.
But even since Tesla introduced their first practical car, we have seen some major improvements in battery technology:-
Higher power density leading to more practical real world range.
Systems that are capable of much greater charge rates, which significantly reduced recharging times, there are cars which can now receive an 80% charge in as little as 10 Minutes. Though that must be balance against the many that still take longer at the moment.
And battery life which is actually far better than was being predicted by the manufacturers, yet alone the doom merchants.
As I wrote at the top, its not going to be easy, and there are some real issues that need to be sorted concerning the charging infrastructure. The number and location of stations needs to increase, as do the number of faster chargers, accessibility not only to the physical chargers but also to the payment methods - it should be as simple going to a pay at the pump at any fuel station, without having to have special apps on your phone for all the different companies.
But there will also be pressure on all drivers (not just EV's) to change as we see greater restrictions on accessing urban areas, I also think we are likely to see more Toll roads.
Change is definitely on the way.