Pumping the breaks on electric vehicle hype

German auto giant Volkswagen just announced plans to produce 50 million electric cars in the coming years.  The news comes as more and more evidence suggests that across the globe, consumers are embracing electric vehicles.
Already, 1 million EVs have sold in the United States. One estimate concludes that U.S. roads will carry over 18 million EVs by 2030.
The future, it seems, has arrived. While EVs were once a quaint curiosity, they’re now a viable mass-market product — and cou