I recently looked at the market for electric charging stations in downtown urban areas paid for by the local utilities.
If you see any charging stations in downtown, take a photo for your records. They will come and go in an historic blink of an eye. Why?
Electric cars are a short lived fad. The hybrid is a good idea from a power supply and physics point of view. On a cost basis, the electric car with its expensive batteries, will keep the proportion of the electric auto population limited. Americans want more space to live in, in houses and cars. That favors non-electric fuels for the majority of cars.
As for central urban charging stations, that is a short term plan.
The main reason, men (women rarely) buy electric cars is to commute to work. In the many parts of the U.S. where electrics get a priority highway lane, that is the primary reason for buying an electric.
The other reason for buying electric is to be ‘a good secular person’, the same reason for all other current environmental and armageddon behavior like sorting garbage and saving water.
The consequence, I see, is that work locations will have solar panels to charge their employee commuter electrics during the day. The utility provided charging stations will be incidental.
There will also be a problem with the public charging stations because it is too expensive to supervise a parking space with a 30 minute charger, when the parking space itself is free.