The problem with electric vehicles

Joel Johnson:

Electric cars are terrible. They just are. They're a solution for a problem we don't have. Or rather, they're a solution for a problem we aren't about to change: our sprawling, big-ass cities filled with things we can't afford to buy yet must haul around. (Like kids.)

Modern electric cars make about as much sense as rooftop airports. They're fairy tickets to a more-or-less inevitable future that hasn't actually arrived. For most of the American market, the only advantage electric cars offer over gasoline-powered vehicles is the permission to daydream about a time when their decision to drive in the first place doesn't hurt the environment.

Even auto executives agree with me (as much as it pains me to say so): two-thirds of a couple hundred auto executives think electrics and hybrids combined won't make a dent in the market until 2025.

My sister just bought a few acres of scrub farmland outside of Kansas City, Missouri, on which she built a yurt. Her husband commutes 40 miles each way to work downtown. They spend a lot of money on gas, but far less than it would take to make the payments on a new electric car. That's pretty normal around those parts, as it is in all but the few densely packed coastal cities.

... 

There is more.

I have made some of the same arguments before but Johnson has a colorful way of presenting them.  At this point if you gave me one about the only trip I would feel confident in making is over to the Post Office.