Regarding climate change and CO2 emissions, electric cars fail too : making the car AND producing the electricity to run it still produces way to much CO2. (most electricity still comes from coal)
If I had to make a bold prediction : in the future, individual cars (running on gas or electricity) will be rare !
However, energy density is a legitimate complain about batteries, but it’s unreasonable to compare to gasoline.
Highly dependent on location. At the end of 2016, CA was is less than 5% usage and 0.2% production of coal powered electricity. Many other places are following as well.
Fossil fuels (coal, gas - on which CA depends for more than half its electricity production BTW) represent more than 60% of electricity produced worldwide.
This is not true anywhere in the US, and use of coal is in decline everywhere.
Still, when you look at the picture at the 'planet' level, taking into account the big 'giants' whose consumption per capita has yet to reach our western standards - say China, India - Coal is STILL the 1st source for electricity worldwide (source : http://www.tsp-data-portal.org/Breakdown-of-Electricity-Gene...)
It's consumption is deacreasing worldwide, sure...Maybe because resources of coal are in decline ? It's still the 1st resource to produce electricity, with 40% of electricity produced. (electricity is only one part of the energy we consume...)