Electrical cars, huh?
Well, i worked partly on that during my University time (Engineering of high power electric systems and distribution).
Lets say, scientists have to work MUCH on that issue until the electric car will be an "all day everywhere usable system".
The main problem behind it is the "power to weight ratio".
Sure. Electric power can be changed into motion power at very high rates. Electric motors are the most efficient motors. The problem behind it is to store the power you need to move around 1.5 Tons of Car for more than 200 km. Currently, the best batteries out there you can get are those in your mobile phones. Lithium-Ion Accumulators. Problem: Expensive. And when it comes to high power output... they tend to degrade fast. Lose their capacity. Replacement is expensive.
And their "power to weight ratio" sucks still ginormous.
As example, i'll take my current car. Takes in 5.2-6 litres of Diesel for 100 km waylenght. With my 60 liter Tank i can go over 1000 km. Refill is done in under 5 minutes. And the "weight" that my car has to carry around (and get to move) is nearly 1 kilo per litre. So, fully tanked, my car is 60 kilos heavier.
And then - the electric cars. Modern electric cars have battery blocks weighting around 500 kilos. In case of the most promising car manufacturer (Silicon Valley based Tesla Motors), that is between 1/3 (Roadster) and 1/4 (Sedan Version) of the overall car weight. And they can only go 400 kilometres with that. Then its "Quick Charge Time". 45 minutes. Which is... not very widely accepted at the customer base. Especially when you want to travel.
And there is the other side.
Where does the power come from to charge it?
From the electric grid.
Now, we just make some easy math, taking the specs of the Roadster Battery block. Fully charged, it holds 55 kWh electric power. Thats not too much, i dare say, that would apply to nearly every future model from whatever firm. Average overall. Downside: The charging uses up around 20% of the overall capacity going poof in thermal energy. Means: Around 10 kWh additionaly.
Lets say, there will be around 1 Million electric cars out there in the next 10 years in the USA. Thats not too much, according to the actual statistics (2006: 135.000.000 Cars driven by US People). That means, that you need additional power plants. To serve every day (lets assume, everybody will only drive 300 miles a day and charges only one time a day) 55 GIGAWATTHOURS. That is the capacity of around 12-15 nuclear power plants. And an extra 10 Gigawatthours only for charging. Additional 3 plants for "nothing".
And - from the technical side... no offense meant, just speaking as someone that has to deal with that shit everyday: The US-American Electric Grid is shortly before the Great BOOM. For a) it is more outdated, rundown and shitty than everything that you even can find in Third World Countries, it runs b) on nearly 98% of its capacity. There is not one single day that we have not to deal with systems going down due to brownouts.
So:
There is much to do. Very, very much.
- The customer base. More mileage, even quicker reload. Everywhere Docking Stations. Like your everyday gas pump. You cannot sell that to "normal" people until you dont fulfill their customer base wishes.
- The technics sourrounding the whole thing. Complete rebuild, update and strengthening of the power grid. Hey, its not only the cars that raise the capacity need. More light, more firms, more whatever is hungry for electric power.
The last point is the most cost extensive. And environmental unfriendly. We speak about cost estimates of 500+ BILLION USD. And building new plants. A lot of new power plants. Not very environmentally friendly, having more powerlines cutting through landscapes, burning oil or even more badly: Uranium to get the power.
If you ask me:
From an engineers opinion, the best way is, yes to electric motors in the car. But store the energy in chemical form. Use fuel cells to get the power for the motors. Store and serve the chemical agent (like gas) at the normal tanking stations. Why? This way, it serves more people, does not stress the power grid, is already existing and hasn`t to be rebuild from scratch (gas stations).
And this way, you can use whatever plants decentrally to create that stuff. Like, over an energy extensive high pressure process with catalysators to create natural gas (methane) out of Carbondioxide and Water. And if you dont want to do this by means of chemical science - algae can do that. Clorophyll is the stuff. Do it over the biomass circle.