Ever investigate what it takes to manufacture a battery?
These batteries require lithium and cobalt, primarily. There are also small amounts of manganese and a few rare earths.
Lithium is mined primarily in Chile. It is somewhat limited in availability, which means that if everyone buys electric cars, there won't be enough lithium. The price of the car will necessarily be high due to the high cost of the lithium.
Cobalt is even worse. Almost all the cobalt comes from Congo, which uses child labor abusively in the mines. That single supply line is easily disrupted by one of the many wars constantly occurring within Africa. The cost of cobalt will skyrocket if everyone drives electric cars.
So, should that happen, the price of the car will be immense. Remember, these are raw ores. They still must be processed to produce the final chemicals used in making the batteries, and the batteries themselves will still have to be manufactured.
China is the primary manufacturer of lithium batteries (about 70% of the market). This is not a friendly nation to the States. It is friendly to Russia, however.
Making the batteries use a lot of energy. Among the materials required is aluminum, which is very energy intensive to smelt, and lithium, also very energy intensive to smelt. Most of these materials destined for battery use is smelted in China.
The batteries are theoretically recyclable, but it's not practical. It costs more to recycle one than to make a new one.
These batteries aren't cheap. Replacing a battery pack on a typical Tesla costs approx $25,000. A battery may be damaged by age, travel damage such as water or stone exposure, wrecks, and other reasons. These batteries are dangerous also, since their low internal resistance and use of flammable electrolyte can fairly easily start a fire, should the battery be charged or discharged too rapidly. Some cases of aging have been known to start battery fires. Once burning, it burns like a firework (a bright flame, similar to a magnesium flame). It is a class B fire (electrical fire). If all cells are involved in the pack, it becomes a class A (common) fire. The best extinguishing agent to use is CO2, which deprives the fire of oxygen and lowers the temperature, breaking the fire triangle. It also leaves no residue. The battery will have to be replaced of course, but the car can be salvaged if the fire wasn't burning for too long. Unfortunately, most fire departments are not equipped to fight battery fires.
Recently, a ship carrying thousands of high end European cars suffered a battery fire from an EV. The fire spread through the hold and the crew had no way to fight it. They abandoned ship safely, but the entire container ship was lost, along with all of it's cargo. People had been waiting literally years for these cars to be delivered. The car manufactures of course suffered the loss financially as well. Some may not recover from it and will be forced out of business.
The charging stations also must be manufactured. These make use of electronics and heavy transformers (oil filled...remember the pollution concerns about THOSE?), and connectors that are mostly only available from Asia. Due to the current shipping problems, these components and charging stations are seeing a real serious shortage in availability. Existing charging stations are numerous, most occurring in workplace parking lots, shopping centers, etc. It is also possible to have an electrician install one in your home (special high amperage circuit is required). These charging systems will take about eight hours to charge a typical Tesla Model 3 from dead battery to fully charged. They are expensive, but they do have the advantage that they can use a standard 200A service entrance available on a house without overload. It's similar to hook up a welder.
High current charging stations are quite detrimental to the battery. Using such stations shortens the life of the battery considerably. A few are available, but these require special high current supplies specially wired from local distribution lines. As more of these come into use, the electrical distribution grid will have to be heavily modified just to carry the necessary power. Further, more generating capacity will have to be built. This is currently blocked by various forms of government interference. These stations can charge a Tesla in about an hour (dead battery to fully charged), but the battery will not last as long in that Tesla before needing replacement.
Lithium batteries have the advantage of a very low internal resistance and a light weight. Their disadvantage is that current must be limited to maintain a long battery life and to reduce the risk of fire. In cars, battery packs are cooled by forced air cooling, or by undercarriage air cooling.
EVERYTHING in an electric car is powered by that battery. The lights, the heater, the computer, the motors, the windows, EVERYTHING. Use of electric cars in inclement weather is a further drain on the battery and shortens range. Towing with them is impractical, since range will be reduced to unusable values.
The current range (typical driving habits) is about 300 miles, about the same as one fill-up for a gasoline powered car. It takes a few minutes to fill up a gasoline car, but it takes eight hours to charge the electric car (to fill it up). This makes the EV impractical for cross country travel. It's effectively a commuter car.
For those concerned about CO2, manufacturing these batteries is very energy intensive. That means emitting CO2 to do it. The power plant necessary to charge these cars also burn fuel to run. They also produce CO2.
There is no need to be concerned about CO2, however, since CO2 has no capability to warm the Earth.
To summarize, the EV does cause a lot of CO2 (so what?), uses difficult to get materials that are very limited, and benefits mostly Chile, the Congo, and China...not exactly friendly nations. Their long 'refueling' cycle makes them impractical for continuous use. A decent, if expensive commuter car, but not much else.
