The range problem will always be there in some respect, but for many people it won't be an issue if the car is a 2nd car. And the infrastructure will get rolled out eventually. The beauty of it is that independent quick-charge stations could literally spring up anywhere the power is already on. And for the retailers, consumers stuck for 20 or 30 minutes while their car is recharged probably sounds like a dream come true. For a long time, the profit in fuel retailing has come from the overpriced convenience stores attached to the fuel pumps.

Off interstates though, the west can get pretty empty. This is near the Nevada/Oregon border:

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/cherokeeprogressive...

There isn't one to support cross-country trips in electric cars, and building one would be very hard to impossible... at least unless someone makes one powered by ultracapacitors.

My questions for you: Why is it "impossible" to develop a new infrastructure? Can you provide any data to support that? I'm always interested to know why people think "because it doesn't exist, it can't exist".

And to answer your question, here are my points:

1) When automobiles were first adopted it was unlikely that people were taking long trips. The infrastructure developed over time. Give these people some time to develop the new infrastructure.

2) That common argument neglects to recognize I can charge an electric car in my garage every night. I don't need charging/battery swapping stations everywhere. (Though, I concede, people in apartments would)

3) The above point is particularly significant when you realize that the commute for millions of people everyday is only a few miles.

Are electric cars going to solve everyone's problems today? No. Are they poised to solve the problems for many people soon? Absolutely.

Because batteries take hours to charge, rather than minutes, it makes long trips awfully impractical. That's just plain ol' chemistry getting in the way, absent some huge advance in technology. Some have suggested hot-swappable battery packs, but bearing in mind that battery packs weigh hundreds of kilos and degrade over time (meaning you can never be sure you're not going to get a shitty one) then it makes life tricky.

Personally I think the Chevy Volt has the right idea: combine fully-electric behaviour for short trips with the capability to do long trips by burning fuel. I'd definitely consider buying something with that kind of tech once it becomes available in a wider variety of cars.

Crossing Utah is no problem: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=rv+park+near+Utah