[benkuykendall]

I appreciate that use of your vehicles was essential for you during the aftermath of Katrina. But I don't think emergency situations are a good enough rational for using a gasoline-powered car every day. As in many computer science problems, there are benefits from treating the worst case (e.g. medical transport after a natural disaster) and the average case (e.g. commuting to work) separately.

In general, I suspect electric is better in the average case, and gasoline in the case of emergencies. We see this with household power: most people power their houses with electricity, but may use a gas backup generator. For the similar reasons, we should probably drive electric cars to work but continue using gasoline-powered ambulances.