Could anyone anticipate a situation in the next decade where the cost of gasoline rises high enough, the availability/cost of electric vehicles, the accessibility of charging stations, and the taxation of gasoline/incentives for renewables/rebates for electrics becomes so dramatic that gasoline cars become just essentially useless?...
Actually, I had already come close to reaching that conclusion over three years ago, and bought a new 2011 Nissan LEAF.
I had never bought a new vehicle before, but California and federal incentives brought the net price down to ~$21k. The LEAF's retail resale value ~three years and ~28K miles later is ~$15k today.
Offsetting that ~6k of depreciation is ~$4k of fuel cost savings, as my energy-efficient home's electricity bill actually declined slightly (even though the LEAF uses ~300kWh a month additionally, charging at night) due to my switching to PG&E's E-9 Time-of-use rate.
Total maintenance costs to date have been ~$60, but it will need the first major maintenance cost (new tires) soon.
So I got to own and drive a very nice new car for three years for about ~$2k net, which I believe is considerably less than the total maintenance and depreciation (even cheap old cars get older and cheaper) of the ~5-10 year old ICEV alternative I could have bought.
If I were buying a BEV today I would be shopping used (I didn't have the used option to consider in 2011, of course) as I expect the ownership costs of a used BEV to be lower than new, just as always has been the case for ICEVs.
But there are some places where National and regional incentives push new (net) BEV prices so low, buying new still makes financial sense today.