To those who requested additional citation, check out the full report of the study I mentioned. It's available at
ACS Publications - Cookie absent .
You should read the section on Battery Production to get an idea of the current state of battery energy densities. E.g. they used a figure of 250kg of Li-ion batteries for a PHEV with 90km (56mi) range. It would take a 2 gallon gas tank to deliver the same range.
That's with Li-ion. Tried-and-true NiMH have one third the energy density, so they'd require 750kg (!) of batteries, plus additional batteries that would be required to haul around all that extra weight and bulk.
I feel the above-cited work supports their conclusion: PHEV (and presumably EV) GHG benefits require lower-carbon electric generation. Alternatively, it would require battery or fuel-cell technology that currently looks like sci fi.
All-electric will be the way to go, but only after we've switched our electricity generation over to renewable sources. It's currently more than two thirds fossil fuelled, and your mom's electric minivan is going to run on whatever is offered by the grid. Hey, why not move a little farther out into the suburbs? Electricity is cheap, and we've got about 100 years of coal left in the ground.