New Cars Too Pricey for Many

[Merlin]

A Tesla battery for a base model currently costs almost $7,000. An owner will spend several thousand more for installation. I'm sure the costs will go down with time, but Tesla wants to have a monopoly on Tesla repairs. You can't just take one of their cars to an auto repair shop, and they want to keep it that way.

I am not looking for a new vehicle but maybe a 100% battery one in 10 years?  

My wife was forced to turn in a 1-year-old VW TDI diesel getting 49-mpg.   I have a friend who was getting 51-mpg on the same car.   Current battery cars getting only 50-mpg seems un-eventfull as I was already getting that and with a better engine.  Now I drive my 18-mpg diesel tuck more as that's the way the gov., wants it.    I will look forward to a 100-mpg battery car in the future I hope as maybe a replacement?  That is unless China stops letting us polluting and destroying their country (making batteries)?

Electric cars generally get a lot more than 51 mpg. For example, the Nissan Leaf gets like 112 MPGe (MPG equivalent). The Volt gets 106 MPGe when operating on electric power. Heck, even the Chrysler Pacifica PHEV minivan has an MPGe of 84.

As I mentioned before, battery prices drop very quickly, so while a battery may cost $7000 today, that same battery is probably going to run closer to $500-$1,000 in 10 years given what I've seen so far.