Interesting article. I think you're right on with the assessment that price and range are holding back sales. The Tesla S is a beautiful car, and I hope the Model X will appeal to some consumers willing to spend ~$50k for an SUV/Crossover. But ultimately I know I couldn't afford either auto :-( and I suspect many Americans will these are comparable to traditional combustion or hybrid autos with respect to price and range.
Have you happened to see any innovations or new developments in battery technology that would decrease cost and/or extend range? Do you think we're near being able to develop a battery-powered auto that offers comparable range and price to gasoline fueled autos?
While researching BigInScience's upcoming book "Rush: Science and Technology in our Acceleration Age," I was deeply impressed with Tesla (particularly their early model the Roadster). For those who think battery-powered autos are inferior in performance, check out some of the Roadster drag races on Youtube (the Roadster accelerates 0-60mph in under 4 seconds, quicker than many sports cars). But ultimately the Roadster is not entirely practical as I'm certain the range is vastly inferior to petrol-powered autos under these aggressive driving conditions.
I believe battery-powered autos will become more prevalent in the upcoming decade (possibly as a bridge to hydrogen fuel cell powered autos). It'll be interesting to see if more major auto manufacturers team up with smaller innovative companies like Tesla (I'm certain they will).

Just how many people can afford a $50k car? This is ridiculous for pricing alone. There are many people who have houses that cost less than that because that is all they can afford. These wacko green energy nuts need to be reeled in. Where will all the electricity come from if we go all electric? If you were able to scrape together $50k for the car up front, how do you afford the $12k - $20k battery replacement in the future? Is that supposed to be from the money saved from gasoline/diesel? This is pure insanity.

People keep talking about range being a limiting factor for EV's - it's not range, but charge time. If EV's charged in 5 minutes, then we could put coin/card-op charging stations in at Rest Stops (they already have Vending Machines) and many would be more than happy with a 100-200 mile range (and being able to charge in our garage the rest of the year. Alternately drop the price to "2nd car" price range (15-20k), put the range at 50 miles (25 miles round trip) and offer a lot of options to upconvert - basically the idea behind plug-in hybrids.
Then again, the LEAF just stopped selling out on pre-orders after more than a year of production, so maybe we are making all these "problems" up.

re; BigInScience
Tire burning acceleration has never been an electric cars weakness. The problems with electric cars are the pathetic range they deliver, that as the battery ages the range diminishes, the time it takes to recharge (even assuming a 20 minute 80% charge you only get 40 minutes of travel per hour on the highway.), the effect the heavy batteries have on handling.

I have a 2001 all electric RAV4...the technology is from 1995...so in 16 years the same car takes longer to charge and has less mileage...wtf Toyota and Tesla?

Is this really much better than the NiMh RAV4 Electric of the 1990's?
It had 100 to 120 miles range. Some of those have achieved over 150,000 miles (240,000 km) on the original battery pack.
MAYBE THE THING WAS NOT TO TRASH THEM?

Let me know when it's priced under $30,000. If I am still living, I'll buy one.

@Charles Bosse Sadly we will never have a 5 minute, 200 mile charge for a family auto. You just cant get the electrons into the batteries that fast. 200 miles requires about 50kWhrs of energy so for a 5 minute charge, the 'vending machine' would have to provide 600kW of power. I wouldn't want to be anywhere within a hundred yards of such a device while in use! Typically you can charge electric car batteries at about 20-25 miles of range per hour. Yes you can charge faster with DC but you'll be stressing the batteries, reducing their life. The real answer to the range issue is battery swap - with that you can have your 200 mile 'fill-up' in just a couple of minutes. However, if you ask an EV owner if they worry about range the most likely answer is no - they just work around the range issue. One Leaf owner I know is driving nearly 2000 miles per month - he just uses the car for what it's good at - which is about 98% of all driving trips.

Maybe it is better to wait for the Tesla X, which should be 57K with 160 miles range and much more car.
PS: for Hmmm, if you can afford only a house that cost less than 50K, what car to buy is the last of your problems!

re; -dphiBbydt
So does he own and pay insurance on another car or pay exorbitant money and/or time and effort for public transportation for the other 2%?