Discussion on:

Ford's CEO reveals true cost of electric vehicle batteries

This still doesn't take into account the un-green mining, processing, shipping, and disposal of said batteries, not the hazmat cleanup after a bad car accidents. EVs are only "green" in the sense that they don't burn gasoline in an internal combustion engine.

Until they can get the batteries to go farther than they do now, it doesn't really matter how cheap they get, no one is going to buy a car that only goes 76 miles before having to park it for 3 hours. You can't even go from Boston, MA to NYC in less than 9 hours with one of these things. They'll forever be a niche vehicle used only for the very short commutes and they'll never be able to replace a conventional or hybrid vehicle because they're just useless for anything other than a short commute.

...if it didn't cost two or three times what a conventional car does.

Most people commute less than 5 to 10 miles a day. In that case, I'd only have to charge it once a week. It certainly wouldn't be my only car, however.

What kills this is the cost. On an TCO (total cost of ownership) basis, most of these cars are non-starters. (pun intended) Until the purchase price is closer to what an equivalent conventional car costs, these will remain the toys of those who wish to pay a premium to look green.

OK I may not be a tech geek, but why does the Tesla advertise a drive range of 300+ miles while Ford and Chevy can only go a meager 70 miles? I know there is some price differences between the Tesla and other vehicles but come on you mean to tell me that Ford and Chevy cannot do better. Hang your head in shame engineers!

the reason the Tesla has a longer range is because it has a much larger storage battery. That is why the car costs so much. You want longer range, you pay more money for more battery. Simple.

The battery in the Tesla S is much bigger, but Tesla pulls it off while building the Model S less than 200 lbs heavier than the Chevy Volt.

At least the Teslas performance is worth the extra money. You can see some value in the premium price.

A high end Tesla S will run about $77,000 or $240 per mile of range.

By comparison the Volt is badly over priced. At $40,000 or $1,142 per mile of range is is more than 4 times the cost per mile of range.

If I had the money to burn on an EV, it would be a Tesla. Hands down it is a better value.

Bloom boxes are scalable fuel cells, which run on natural gas, for which the current distriburion systems are expanding. LNG has a technical advantage over hydrogen as far as containment is concerned (it doesn't leak between the atoms of otherwise solid fuel tank walls). It also is piped all over the country. If car manufacturers insist on sticking with batteries, which are not terribly efficient at storing energy, they will have to switch to a new business model where the car owner doesn't own (or pay for) the batteries. It might also be useful to switch to the Israeli system, where a used battery (charge exhausted) is swapped for a fresh battery is 30 seconds), rather than the current model of owners charging them, which will create a whole new headache for our power grids.

In their present state of technology EV's & Hybrids are still a "feel good" personal choice in automobile purchase.

Yes, EV's are limited and expensive. But most households own two cars, so one can be for short range use and the other for long range. In our case, we have two cars - one a pure EV (Ford Focus Electric) and the other a Chevy Volt (plug-in hybrid). We get 400 mile range in the Volt (mix of battery and gas operation) so we use it for long trips, and the Ford is used for short trips. We have solar panels, so most of our electricity is renewable. And yes, it "feels good" to drive EV's - but it also costs very little to power them if you do it right.

Electric automobiles are too expensive for many people. This largely is due to the price of EV batteries, mentioned Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The Obama administration is committed to changing that. You can purchase car that has cleaner energy.