> scaling to a few hundred isn’t easy or viable

That seems wrong to me. I mean, objectively I'd expect the construction expense of a gasoline fueling station to be much higher than just running more electrical distribution lines to a major shopping area.

I think you're making the mistake of comparing the "cost" of new construction to the sunk cost of existing infrastructure. Those gas stations don't last forever and the cost to disassemble and rebuild them needs to be part of your analysis.

It scales faster than building out a whole new infrastructure especially since it gets to piggyback off of existing electrical distribution networks, and any one with a driveway/garage can charge there own vehicle by plugging it into the wall albeit slower than at a purpose built charger. many of those will have a personal charger though so even that will be faster. also batteries are less prone to explosive decompression in a accident than storage tanks of highly compressed explosive gas.