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I have seen many arguments about EV's not being that much more efficient or cleaner than ICE's because of the efficiency of the power plant involved, and that coal is so dirty.
However taking the energy back to the power plant is equivilant to taking the fuel cycle back to the refinery. And EV's still win out efficiency wise even by their calculations which doesn't even take in regenerative braking, that has to say something for EV's.
Not long ago I calculated how much power I would use if I switched entirely to electric for tranportation (other technical issues asside), and found that my electricity consumption would double. Considering that I have an average US carbon footprint, going completely EV would pose some serious problems for our grid.
We already have batteries that can be charged from 20% to 80% in under 5 minutes, their capacity by weight and volume is seriously lacking. However when you consider the ammount of power required to charge them in that amount of time (1Mw+ for an automotive application) and that you need to have some kind of connector that is both idiot proof, efficient and durable you begin to realize the obsticles ahead for a full EV conversion.
Edit to add: and yes EV's are the future, and Hybrids are the stepping stone to get there.
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