Realize I'm two years late to the party, but I only bought my TDI a couple of months ago. Personally, (que controversial opinion) I'm half betting this EV craze fades. Between the massive environmental impact these cars have, and the government pushing automakers to get them to market faster than is really practical, I think the majority of the public will snap back to ICE, but the hydrogen variety.
Oh, and what about when electricity rates skyrocket because of demand and greed. You all don't really think these energy companies are just going to give up making money, do you?
I bought my Golf with 185k miles on it, very much so I can ride the storm out for the next 500k miles until the market decides which direction things are going.
"EV Craze" --- I'm sorry. This is where the market is going. Emissions and fuel economy standards will make Gas cars nearly impossible. Many manufacturers have already stated this current ICE gen will be their last ICE engine advancement. Newer gens will just use slightly rehashed versions. If you're buying a gas / diesel car. Get it now. As this is the best the technology will be from here on out it will likely be fairly stagnant.
Electricity rates will raise for sure. But gas / diesel will be even higher in the end. None of this will get cheaper only more expensive as time goes on. The in-efficiencies of gas engines cannot overcome the efficiencies of EV's. My Q5 Gas could go 160 miles on $25 worth of gas ---> My polestar 2 DC fast charging w/o a pass @$.32 / minute gets the same mileage for $7.20. ( And this car is not even as efficient as say a Tesla Polestar is about 3.2 miles per KwH ) If I choose the pass @ $.24/ minute for $4/mo.... is is $6.40 / wk for the same fillup driving 640 miles / mo, if you drive more its even cheaper. AC Charging is about 1/2 the price or around $4 to go 160 miles. My Electricity rate is .256 / kwh which is double the national average. If they TRIPLED the electricity rate, it would be on part w/ gas. But a 300% increase is HIGHLY unlikely. 3 - 5% / yr is though.
In my Q5 TDI over 12000 miles I averaged around 28 MPG total over everything tracked in fuelly. @ 3.50 / gal of diesel thats $20 to go 160 miles, @ over $5/gal the current: thats $28.57. If I take only my BEST highway mpg ever of 33.8 MPG @ $3.50 / gal --- Thats $16.57 to go 160 miles, or at the current diesel prices i put $5 but its over that for sure: $23.67 to go 160 miles.
So in summary for my less than ideal electric to not be more efficient than a gas or diesel vehicle in terms of $$ to operate not including maintenance the electricity price would need to double in my area 4x the national average at WORST case but likely close to 6 or 7x the national average. Super unlikely we will see $.60 - $.70 / KwH in the next 10 years and if we do: I predict solar adoption will be through the roof... pardon the pun.
As far as environmental. It does not take a crazy amount of miles driven even in many dirtier states for power production for the environmental impact to be far less than Gas & Diesel.
and as far as the battery--> Companies are coming online to deal with this problem:
and finally: On Emissions my car in my state will take 30k miles of driving to be less pollution than either of my other cars. or 2.5yrs