My stepson got a Chevy Volt last year and loves it. His is a PHEV which I think has more adaptability than a full EV since it can run on the ICE engine as well as the electric. He says it generally stays in electric mode until he's got 25 miles or so then the engine kicks in. For 90% of around-town commuting the ICE engine never kicks in.

I do think ICE vehicles will eventually wither away although I don't think it will be as soon as many EV proponents would like.

The one thing I don't hear about is how and when we are going to upgrade the electrical generating capacity of the country at a time when we are shutting down coal and gas fired power plants. How much juice does it take to recharge an EV each night? Maybe the same as a small air conditioner, running anywhere between 10 - 14 hours at a time?

When only one car on the block is an EV that's a piece of cake for the existing generating capacity. But when it gets to 1 in 4 or 1 in 3 there's going to have to be an upgrade. And given that the power will be needed at night when people are sleeping, we're not going to get it with solar.

Then of course, there's the problem that not everybody lives in the suburbs. Millions of people live in apartments or condos where they have to park on the street. Think about any big Eastern city, NY, Boston, Philadelphia. Lots of people live in apartments or houses that have no parking structure or driveway and still own cars. Where do those people charge their EVs?

I foresee a cottage industry of building charging station/parking lots. Imagine a large parking lot like you'd see anywhere else, but every single space has a charging station in front of it. Given that your car will have an electronic "identity" there's likely not even any need to swipe a credit card. As soon as you plug in, the charging station will "know" who's account to charge and it can bill you for the hours of parking, too.

There are some interesting privacy aspects to that, too although the prevalence of smart phones might make that a moot issue.