Few people get past 150,000
Few people get past 150,000 miles without an engine/transmission rebuild, and few want to drive a 150k+ car. YMMV. My point was that we now seem to have adequate battery life/duration. We can probably put the battery life issue to bed.
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We have the generation and transmission needed to charge 78% of all US vehicles if they were turned into electrics overnight. Our grid is designed to supply daytime peak loads and our off-peak/nighttime loads are much lower.
Adding EVs to the grid is highly beneficial for renewable energy, especially wind. The average EV will need to charge about 1.5 hours per night. That means great flexibility for grid managers - it gives them large dispatchable loads which can soak up supply peaks and drop out when demand peaks. Some EVs could go days between charging if desirable.
EVs will make wind farms more profitable. And that will lead to more investment/more installation of wind generation. Furthermore, lots of EV owners are likely to pre-purchase their fuel for the next four plus decades by putting some solar panels on their roofs, selling the extra power to the grid, and taking back cheap wind-electricity at night.
We're already installing fast chargers. They will soon be in place along our major travel routes. Long before we see HFCVs in showrooms.
Making hydrogen from natural gas makes no sense. Just burn the natural gas as is. You loose less energy and screw the environment just the same amount.
How many homes now have a hydrogen nozzle? At least 50% of all homes have available outlets for charging an EV.
What would it cost to create the hydrogen infrastructure? The electricity infrastructure will cost small money per vehicle to furnish outlets for the 'other 50%'. Card swipe outlets along streets and in work/school parking lots, for example.
For HFCVs to be cheap we would need 1) the fueling infrastructure in place, and 2) large enough manufacturing volume to enjoy economy of scale. If EVs/PHEVs get there first I can't see HFCVs breaking through those barriers.
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Captcha stinks. If you're going to screen the comments anyway, why suppress the input. I'm not likely to continue battling with that system for long.