[jbms]

It might be worth thinking about where there were successful electric vehicles before cars. All the scenarios I can think of are times the vehicle purchaser is willing to deal with charging infrastructure in return for the benefits.

Milk floats were quiet and didn't need to haul heavy loads, which was convenient for early morning deliveries. Distribution point/dairy can be the charge point.

Golf karts/utility vehicles. Never stray far from their chargers. Being quiet makes them more comfortable.

Forklifts are majority electric, and that was before lithium. Cheaper to run than fuel equivalents. They're still majority Lead Acid. A lead acid battery is heavy (a positive for a forklift) and lasts a shift before charging cheaply at overnight rates or swapping out the battery if there's another shift needing to use it. Lack of combustion fumes for an indoor warehouse or factory is real nice.

On technology specifically, range is next to useless if you can't tell how much you've left. I understand that tracking energy in and out the battery to a high level is not easy for a BMS - sample at the wrong rate and the potential error in over/underestimating range is quite large.

[LargoLasskhyfv]

Eons ago I've driven one such forklift through a high rack warehouse for a year. It had 2 batteries, weighing about 4 metric tons each (Lead-Sulfuric acid). They made it about 4 hours (half shift), then had to be exchanged with another forklift at the loading station. Always had to check for levels of sulfuric acid, watch out for oxyhydrogen/electrolytic gas, and whatnot else. But was fun to ride, because up to 35kph on the ground for the whole 12 metric tons, wobbly cabin/platform at 12meters up, and deadly fast fork. So...very niche, I guess?

Another thing similar to milk floats comes to mind from the time the railways used to deliver post and packets. Those things always trundled along the platforms, to where the post/baggage car would be. Sometimes with several small trailers.

[satiric]

Well, percent state of charge (how full the battery pack is) is not so hard to calculate, you just have a look up table for battery voltage vs %SOC. Although you may need to calibrate for the voltage drop caused by the internal resistance of the battery cells. The hard part is converting that into a "miles remaining" estimate, which requires a good estimation of how many kWh your vehicle uses per mile. I think some manufacturers even link this into the GPS and take into account the elevation change on the route you selected.