You've still gotta burn SOMETHING to power the car...
No, in fact, all you have to do is generate electricity. This does not necessarily equate to burning something and even when it does, WHAT gets burned and at what level of overall efficiency still matter a great deal.
The short answer is 'fuel cells.' It seems that these are already working their way down the price curve and up in manufacturing scale. Right now, today, instead of paying the usual power bill, it is far more efficient to install one of these on your home and use it as a 'cogeneration' facility; use/sell the power generated- and the heat is a nice FREE bonus you can do all sorts of heretofore impractically expensive things with, like heat a warm water aquaponics tank through a northern winter. Or your garage, outbuildings, barn, greenhouse, doghouse, hot tub, you get the idea.
Yes, for now the fuel cell will run on natural gas, fracked and all, but A. That's much better than coal, B. Far more efficient use of energy because you use more of the BTus and fewer are wasted, C. The power generated makes running your electric car (and everything else that needs it) even less expensive than it already is, D. It's YOUR POWER, not subject to rolling blackouts, electrical outages, etc. And it will pay for itself in reduced/eliminated electric and gas bills in just a few years, far faster than solar or wind.
Yes, but it's still using fossil fuel, you say. It need not; they love to use methane from bio sources for instance, and hydrogen is the ideal fuel for them, with no CO² produced at all. The hydrogen itself can be made a variety of ways, again, not all of which need be fossil fuel based.
Electricity is the most efficient and fungible form of energy, and it will become ever more so in the future. Elon Musk may have a vested interest in his opinion, but I think his bet on Tesla is visionary. Electric cars are simply better. They are for sure a lot less mechanically complex and therefore potentially more reliable and durable. The battery issue is a big one, but my guess is that it too will yield to at least incremental improvement from now on. That sort of incremental improvement will put its efficiency out of reach versus gasoline power, it's only a matter of time.
Finally, those fuel cells emit CO² as a byproduct of electrical cogeneration... anybody think of a use for that? AT HOME?! LOL
Yeah, the future is bright. Grab your shades!