Until they make an electric vehicle that can go 300 miles, then recharge in 15 minutes, then go another 300 miles before needing another 15 minute stop, it will not be accepted by most people. All of the current solutions that near this capabilities require sometype of gasoline or deisel back up. Also they don't recharge for free and most power in this country is produced by coal, then natural gas. The day is coming, but probably not in 10 years.

@glennlab C'mon, Glenn; you're doing some "horse-and-buggy" thinking.

#1. Do you leave your car parked at night? Most EV's charge overnight - to full capacity. If you drive over 300 miles a day for your job...it's time to find a new job.

#2.My machine goes to 325...and I bought it a year ago. Now they're up to 390, and there's lots of talk about 400+ ranges.

#3 Test drive one. I challenge you. It's free.

They have Three service centers near where you live.. Search Tesla, Dallas.

Fill this form out...send it in. You will be delighted. I promise.

[tesla.com]

@Robecology You totally ignored my argument, and proved my point. there is no current electric vehicle that will meet my needs. I will travel 1500 miles frequently. A 1000 miles in one day is not unheard of in my travels.. It takes 6 hours just to get out of Texas That is what i need a car for, not some get to point a that's 4 miles away. Overnight is no where near 15 minutes and again your overnight is simply transfering the source of pollution down the road where it is emitted in a much more concentrated form. Accusing me of horse and buggy thinking is really uncalled for. You know nothing of my circumstances or my habits.
FYI I have driven one, and they will not meet my needs. 400 miles in one direction will not even get me out of Texas.

@glennlab "Until they make an electric vehicle that can go 300 miles, then recharge in 15 minutes, then go another 300 miles before needing another 15 minute stop, it will not be accepted by most people."

I think this statement is false due to the last "most people" part. You personally may need a vehicle that will have a huge range; most people don't. They use the car for local trips to work, school, groceries or similar. Three hundred miles in one day is not near the middle of the bell curve for miles driven per day in the U.S.

In 2005, most people still had wall phones. Cell phone batteries didn't hold a charge but for only an hour or two of use; cell plans were expensive; cell phones were expensive. Ten years later, almost everyone had a cell phone. In ten years, my guess is the auto battery technology will have caught up with the car tech, so they will hold a larger charge for a longer time, and if there is enough of them, you may be able to just have a robot swap out a battery pack in five minutes automagically at a charging station, so the time to "fill up" is basically the same as today.

RE: source of pollution ... in 10 years coal will probably be over and it will all be renewable or natural gas, both of which are 10 times less polluting than the current coal tech.

@AtheistInNC Since most people are not accountants, they look at purchase price versus what it will do not long term costs. Since a Tesla costs twice as much as a comparable gasoline vehicle it has to provide twice the benefit to be attractive.
I agree that coal power production will be phased out, and the sooner the better. I have been hearing that electric cars would be the future for over 40 years, as soon as the technology was there. There are still not enough charging stations and in many areas there are none. Gasoline cars had similar obsticles to overcome and it took them decades to do it. It took an innovation that priced a car where the average person could afford it before infrastructure was put in place.
If electric vehicles were that attractive now, most people would have them, they're not so people don't. Don't take this as me being against electric, I'm not. I'm not going to make a lifestyle change until the things I want to do are included in that change, and I would say that applies to most people. The numbers speak for themselves.Out of 270 million vehicles on the road, slightly more than 1 million are electric, I stand by my use of the word most. 99%is a little over half don't you think?

@glennlab and @AtheistInNC You guys are stuck back in the 20th century.

Purchase prices for the Y and 3 (formerly the E) are now competitively priced in the $30 to $40K range.

There's now thousands of Superchargers around the world - and growing by at least 1 per week.

[supercharge.info]
you save $$ and time by charging at home, at night, while you're sleeping.

You avoid the hassles, smells, and dangers of gas stations.

The EPA fuel cost estimates are still - even with gas prices dropping - at 80-90 MPG cost equivalents - and that's just costs.

I care about the future of dumping pounds of CO2 per mile travelled in gas burners...you guys don't.

So hold on to your gas burners...and support the FFC. Your grandchildren and great grandchildren will not thank you.