What would the problems be if the internal combustion engine were mostly replaced by electric vehicles?
(I had a beautiful answer for you but frickin’ Askville ate it. I’m reproducing it as best I can.) The biggest problem is that electric cars don’t necessarily have a lower carbon footprint than gasoline ones. The electricity doesn’t come out of the ground. Every joule comes from some other source of energy, and these days that’s primarily coal or natural gas. And there’s a lot of loss of energy between the power plant and your car: it has to be sent over the lines, then stored in a battery, and then converted to motion. Each of those is lossy (the battery is VERY lossy). That’s basic thermodynamics and you can’t beat it. We can switch to other sources, but each of them has problems. Nobody likes nuke plants. We’re blowing up dams because they damage the river ecosystems. Wind cuisinarts birds and ruins the view. Etc. One of the economic problems we’re going to have is that the world is full of NIMBYs and BANANAs who will have to be calmed, and that’s a bigger political challenge than I
