Sun and wind power is already much cheaper to install than coal powered plants, and once sun and wind power is up the energy is almost free. Fossil fuel companies are currently struggling, just from this simple economy.
[0] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-motor-vehicle...
But, given still higher costs and range anxiety, it will be very difficult to convince most consumers to buy electric cars. It will be most probably only generational shift: people born before ~1990 will still buy petrol cars till they die out, and younger generations will progressively shift, having different habits. It will take whole century to fully switch to electric vehicles in developed countries - and lack of reliable electric grid will make it in places like Africa even slower.
An even harder, and even larger part of the story is industrial heat (needs to be very reliable and cheap), and residential heating (needs to be very, very cheap and available in large volumes). No good non-fossil solutions here exist.
For industrial heat they will use hydrogen produced from renewable electricity. See for example [0] where it will be used for large scale steel production.
All the technical and economical components for the shift are already in place. The only thing lacking is political will (and apparently knowledge).
[0] https://www.ssab.com/products/brands/docol/automotive-insigh...
For decades Russia has used distruct heating using waste heat from nuclear powerplants, its the chealest heatsource known to man.
More modern approach is probably hydrogen and heat pumps, but either works.
Range anxiety is a brain bug for folks that have never driven electric.
I'm almost fifty and looking for buying an electric car. My parents just bought a plug in hybrid, but would have bought a fully electric if any suitable was available to a reasonable price.
Range anxiety is only an issue for long journeys.
Same can't be said about electric cars. So far, it's almost at the contrary.
Except that supply is unreliable...
Really?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_fossil_fuel_vehic...
I disagree. i think the timescale for the switchover to electric vehicles (and self-driving vehicles) will be shorter than that.
I mean, the climate change situation is hopeless. Some measures may be taken in the name of it, and they are important, but they are mainly a side action: for example, they do a lot to suppress oil-funded dictatorships like Russia or Saudi Arabia - people won't support the measures if they were directed at that openly, but if it's about climate, they are a lot easier to sell. But, we have to just admit that the global warming will proceed and probably faster than even the worst estimates predict, and just plan accordingly out of this assumption. It is too profitable to mine and use fossil fuels, any large nation trying to stop doing so will be competed out of existence by those who don't (and they will have way lower energy efficiency so will displace your uncompetitive products with theirs, in the end INCREASING overall emissions), and largest polluters are nuclear powers so you can't even force them to stop by military action.
Just see where the climate will stand when 3x of the current extractable reserves of fossil fuels are burned (because technology will develop and a lot of new reserves will become available which are now not). And plan for that level of global temperatures, precipitation and sea levels. It will happen, and the nations that win are those who plan in advance.