One can imagine the hypothetical scenario where a large filling station network would offer a battery subscription service of sorts, whereby you can stop at a station, swap in a charged battery, and drive off.
I don't see why this system can't replace re-fueling at a station. The retail store, restaurant, other services i.e the operator's profit, is all still there.
You just change the service/self-service oil option with the self-service electric vehicle battery switching option.
tintin, what is the difference in the logic behind 'afraid of not getting home' with regards to combustion and electric motors? Both run out of juice at some stage, you just make sure it doesn't run out right.
Combustion powered cars can be refueled anywhere in about 5 minutes. Electric cars take hours and that's only for a partial charge.
Also I doubt our electrical infrastructure will support large-scale EV recharging. We have brown-outs and black-outs now in many urban areas during peak demand times. So we'd at least need "intelligent grid" capability to throttle or disable vehicle charging during peak demand hours.
Finally the whole issue of road tax is never discussed. This is a significant portion of the retail cost of gasoline. If/when large numbers of people switch to EV cars, we'll need a way to meter and tax the electricity for road maintenance, or find another way to fund that.
With quick chargers you can charge an electric car in about 30 minutes. Charging that takes hours is not a problem if you can charge the car at work or at home.
It's pretty clear that a large scale switch to electric would require us to upgrade the grid, make available metering solutions and add tax the electricity. It's not going to be easy, but it's not going to be impossible either. And the transition is likely to happen very gradually. 150 years ago people likely told the first auto makers the same thing: How are people going to buy your product when there it's so difficult to get fuel? The problem was solved piece by piece as the market demanded cars.
Not that I have really looked hard, but I don't recall seeing electrical outlets in any parking stall I have ever used. I know there are none in the parking lot for my apartment.
If we are sharing anecdotes: both my condo building and office building have reserved spots for charging electric cars. However, I'm not a fan because they were both installe by government subsidy and currently offer free power. Just why we need: to subsidize the drivin habits of people rich enough to afford an electric car (as they currently command a price premium).
Where I live electrical outlets are quite common because many people use enging heaters during the winter. Also, the government has sponsored many free parking spots with charging (although the free part will probably disappear as soon as electrical cars get popular).
It might be possible to have some of the battery packs replaceable and some fixed, so that you can get to 40% charge or so instantly if you need it. I'm a bit more pessimistic on getting the car makers to standardize on a battery size, especially as long as battery technology is a competitive advantage.