A couple of recent articles:
http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2008-03/how-electric-cars-could-re-ar...
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn13418-thirsty-electr...
have been unnecessarily alarmist about EVs, which can negatively and inaccurately skew present perceptions about EVs.
The popsci article talks about how the increased demand for electricity due to use of EVs will "rearrange the grid". I think this is an rather unnecessarily alarmist attitude. EVs are essentially an answer to rising oil prices, rising pollution, rising transportation costs and unhealthy levels of vehicular emissions.
Firstly, people are not all going to go out and buy an electric vehicle right this moment, the demand and the supply of these vehicles will rise gradually and any consequent rise in demand for electricity will only be required to keep pace with that.
Secondly, if demand for electricity does in fact rise considerably in the foreseeable future, a time table and cost structure could be put into place by supplying grids that could easily take care of such an eventuality.
If, for acquiring the obvious benefits available thru EVs we have to make some adjustments and modifications, we must make them!
The second article talks about an increased demand for water due to the use of EVs. The article quotes a Paul Denholm of the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado as stating that "the overall impacts of plug-in vehicles are modest in the larger scheme of things". I agree with that.
When you look at the big picture, the pros far outweigh the cons of Electric Vehicles. Especially if EVs are powered by sustainable sources of electricity like hydro, wind or solar power, the benefits to the environment are so considerable as to practically nullify the impact of slightly increased usage of water resources.
Also, there is no comparison between oil as a resource and water as a resource. The scarcity of the former and abundance of the latter make this is a superfluous comparison.
