I'd rather have 200 miles and lighter/cheaper(? at least in terms of environmental costs) batteries.

Just as with gasoline-powered vehicles, I would like to have the choice of many different options.

Well, for energy storage and conversion in gasoline powered cars you only have option. Gasoline stored in a tank and combusted in an Otto cycle engine.

I don't think that people's driving behaviour is divergent enough to support multiple battery chemistries in the long run.

I was thinking I can choose between cars that have different capabilities (small or large, big tank or small, fast or slow) even if the core tech is the same.

In environmental costs, I'd much rather have FeNi chemistry fully explored. Nickel iron batteries can be abused by under and over charging, short circuiting heat, cold, vibration, and other effects and still last decades.

Jay Leno has an antique car that still has a working FeNi battery. I think it needs topped off with distilled water every so often. The electrolyte is KOH so it even acts as a preservative. The only problem with the reaction is it's slow to charge and discharge.

Why is it that people have so many diverse opinions that aren't fully informed when it comes to energy??

It may have one benefit, but 30 seconds on wikipedia informs me that it requires 5 times the mass and 20 times the volume of lithium ion to give equal energy output. Which makes it a complete non starter for anything mobile.

FeNi batteries are a wonderful storage medium for things like solar cell chargers in a house, or a wind turbine setup. I never said this is going to be the next watch battery tech.

And also, the fact is that the first cars were electric: they used various chemistries. And as I said above, Leno has a still working car that uses a NiFe battery: Cheap materials, low maintenance, not heavy metal (and nontoxic to boot).

In fact the original recipe indicated making potash, putting it in distilled water, and filtering out the physical chunks of ash.

Forget electric cars. I'm building an Iron Man suit.

Can you imagine how long it would take to charge a battery that could power a regular sized car for 2000 miles?

Even at 220v/30amps it might take a few days,

Why the downvotes? Shouldn't the capacity of our wires also be a limiting factor?