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I'll put on my sendler hat and point out that the higher the battery capacity, the more entrained fossil fuel energy it represents. In other words, it takes a lot of energy to mine, refine, and construct a large battery, and consequently has a longer "break even point" as far as offsetting fossil fuel consumption.
I don't recall the specifics of the study, but a 100 kWh battery might take 150,000 miles to break even on fossil fuel consumption compared with an identical ICE version. The smaller the battery pack, the sooner the EV becomes more environmentally friendly.
The takeaway from the Ted Talk was that plug-in hybrids are an important bridge technology that can end up being more environmentally friendly than an EV equipped with a humongous battery that rarely uses anywhere near the full capacity.
I'll reiterate my point that manufacturers should have been building their vehicles around a 16 kWh battery that would give them 40-50 (30 in a truck or van) miles of EV range. Undersize the ICE and supplement with EV power.
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