OK, I'll give it a quick stab, though I'm sure this was covered back in version four of this thread.
I'll start with this: Many of these reasons/concerns on my lengthy list are "true." Please also note that "truth" isn't always what it is cracked up to be. For example, it is true that EVs don't fit everybody's needs. But this misses the point that NO vehicle fits everybody's needs... so what is so important about this truth in this context? With that said, let's move right along.
EVs can't drive across the country easily.
Quite true. EVs are not the best choice for a cross-country vehicle. It turns out that very few people drive across the country on a regular basis. A few do it every now and again, and an impossibly small percentage of drivers do it with some frequency. While modern EVs can have ranges of 250-300 miles, and fast-charging has been commercialized for many years, driving thousands of miles a day in an EV will not be convenient any time soon. This is a case of "the right tool for the job." For example, I also would not choose to ride a 250cc motorcycle across the country - but I still see the value in having these small bikes available. EVs excel at what most American drivers use their cars for: commuting. And since millions of American households have more than one car, some will choose to keep a liquid-fueled car for the long trips. Others can rent or borrow a vehicle for the task, or fly or take the train, etc. We can no longer afford to scale our transportation for the 1% of drivers. We need to solve this thing for the "low hanging fruit" - the vast majority of drivers who can easily replace a gas car with an EV. (As always, an EV won't work for everybody in all situations. We need to have them available for those who CAN use them, and wish to use them in place of a gas car)
I live in an apartment/I have no garage, so an EV will never work for me.
You already know what I'm going to say here, right? That there are millions of drivers who live in single homes with garages... and those are the ones to conctrate on! Well, that's part of it, certainly. But there's more: Along side the rollout of EVs, it could be required for apartment owners to offer charging for tenants. Or it coule be a huge incentive for them to do so. Apartment dwellers could and should also have the option of charging at their place of employment. Gasoline cars managed to take over the world - and when they were introduced there were NO gasoline stations. Being a nation of smart people, we figured out how to make it work... because we wanted to. We can have charging along residential roads easy enough. Solving this problem is NOT rocket science! It will just take time, money and effort - like everything that is worth doing.
EVs don't have the same range as gasoline vehicles.
In many cases this is true. And it other cases, an EV has greater range than some gas cars. And it turns out that EVs don't even need that same range for 90% of our driving tasks. The range of gas cars is not needed for the vast majority of vehicle trips. We can do 300 mile range EVs today. We can and we have. We could do 500 miles. But then the question is "why?" That's a big waste of energy, weight, and expense to haul around that much "range" when it will be so rarely needed. Way better than having a huge battery range, is a quicker, convenient way to refuel. Then, the few times that you DO venture beyond your normal driving radius, you can cheaply extend your range, and not have to pay for that extra range the other 99% of the time when you don't need it. Putting fast chargers every ten miles on the interstates would be cheaper than even the most conservative cost estimates for the "hydrogen highway" that is being pushed so hard.
Summary: In order for EVs to be everything we want them to be, we need to promote their use, and some early adopters need to buy and use them. They can't get to where we want them to be in one giant leap. It will take some generations... all the more reason that we need to start yesterday. There is no "perfect" car of any description. Some people can't use a truck. Some people can't use a sedan. Some people can't use a motorcycle. But they're all available for those who CAN use them. All I'm asking is for the same thing with EVs. They need to be available for the people who CAN use them today. For most of our driving tasks, EVs are simply superior to a gasoline vehicle. Almost zero maintenance. Cheap fuel. Clean. Powerful. Quiet. No visits to the gas station.
