A pure electric vehicle with a range of about 100-200 miles, would work as a "commuter". But, not for trips to visit grandma or vacations, or even weekend getaways to the beach... So it will not replace the family minivan or SUV, yet. For local in-town use, back-and-forth to work, yes. But only for people who can afford multiple cars, or who are willing to forgo long-distance trips.

I have seen reports of new battery technologies, such as lithium-metal-air, that have a possibility of changing that within the next decade. But those are still "future", not "present". To compete with liquid fuel, batteries have to run the car for 300+ miles at highway speed, and be recharged in only 10-15 minutes. And the recharging infrastructure needs to be available at almost every interstate exit. I think that will begin to happen within a decade, but will take a second decade to build out. Technology development, interface standardization, and construction, take time.

 

Hopefully when the range is extended out to 300 miles they also make the batteries easily removable so the driver could just pull into the refueling station and just swap out the entire battery pack for a freshly charged one. Then the refueling station charges the pack that was just removed. Preferably by a local wind or solar solution.

This would eliminate the need to wait for recharging. Of course it would also mean a lot more packs would need to be manufactured. Not to mention the alternative electrical recharging infrastructure.

Hmmm, jobs?

 

hopefully they won't make disposable ones!

 

I wouldn't want to pay for labor to R&R the battery pack, AND receive a used battery in unknown condition, AND have to depend on the mom&pop filling stations in Timbuktu to actually have the right part. I doubt that would be popular with many people, or that it would work very well.

Several of the new battery & super-capacitor technologies can actually be recharged in just a few minutes. It takes rather a lot of power during that few minutes, but it can be done.

A couple of those battery technologies are past the research stage, and into engineering and small-production already. The super-capacitor technologies hold real promise, because they work on high-voltage instead of high-amps, so they can use smaller wires... but they are still in research as far as I know.

 

I think hybrid cars are just a transition towards fully electric vehicles with no need for gasoline. At least lets hope so.