A recent report suggests bad news for the future of EVs.
Environmentalists have been trying to put people back into dirty crowded urban areas for the better part of three decades now. They envisioned “sustainable” cities, highlighted by dense urban areas and mass transit. The idea started getting really popular in the nineties, until people found out that “sustainable” meant giving up your car, and it disappeared quicker than Grunge. People like the independence you get with a motorcar.
So the focus moved over to electric vehicles. All the convenience and reliability of a gasoline engine, and the exhaust pipe is miles away at the coal plant, where you’ll never see it. This way the American Dream would still be available, without polluting your neighborhood.
But EVs never made a lot of sense. While the technology is admittedly cool, they’re really nothing but playthings. Highway legal Golf Carts for the bourgeoisie, a virtue signal that comes with a Government rebate. I’ve never seen statistics on how many people use an EV as their primary vehicle; I imagine it’s quite a low number.
Because they’re impractical. Auto-drive is cool; it’s nice it is to have a car that meets you at the door, and drives you home from the bar without that annoying lane weaving and subsequent breathalyzer, but you probably need a second car. EVs just aren’t suited for long trips, winter driving, and hauling lumber. I would bet every  toney suburban garage door with a Telsa parked out front, has an SUV on the other side.
Further, they make no contribution to a better environment. When over 60% of the electricity generated in the US still produces CO₂, it seems like a wash. Plus, we’re running out of electricity. Even Texas, whose vast energy reserves make an Iranian nuclear plant appear like an innocent venture, has over-invested into renewables, and the State ran out of juice last winter. So did California,  where residents can only charge their cars on the days they get to water their lawns. At this rate, reaching the Utopian goal of all electric by 2030, will be quite a challenge
There’s a third problem with EVs: Lithium. Virtually all rechargeable batteries require this metal, and lots of  it. Your laptop battery contains more Lithium than a Soviet Mental Institution.  Extracting it from the earth is dirty business, and requires enough slave labor to restaff the entire NBA shoe industry. There is a question if there’s even enough Lithium on the entire planet to get us off petroleum.
In light of this problem a report  was assembled by the USC Davis and the The Climate and Community Project. After regulating the internal combustion engine out of existence, they plan to start implementing regulations on EVs. (The ability of regulations to breed more regulations puts rabbits to shame.)
One suggestion to limit the amount of Lithium mining is to cut the battery size of EVs in half.  We’re going to make EVs more attractive to the consumer by making you charge up twice as much. Remember that four hour trip, that takes five because of charging time? Well now it’s going to be six.
Their other suggestion is, to decrease people’s dependence on EVs by putting people into denser urban areas, and focusing on Mass Transit. Somehow the electric car took us around the world and left us right back where we started.