Hello!
Let me write a fe words here as someone who, for about two years, professionally built electric cars (3,5 ton delivery vans actually).
Lithium Ion technology - today's batteries will last at least ten years - and probably longer. As you have noticed their cost is still very high - and that itself is a very good reason to recycle them - you can save a lot of money this way, by not having to buy expensive raw materials. And the experts I spoke with say that you can grind the old cells to a fine powder (has to be done in a protective gas atmosphere) and filter the powder and make new cells out of it with an addition of just a percent or two of virgin raw materials - so the recyclability should be no problem - at least that's what I have been told by the experts I trust.
Fun fact - the energy capacity of VW e-Golf (rabbit) is 36kWh. Lets the car drive for about 300km - let's say 200 miles under good conditions (not going too fast, not too hot, not too cold). The battery weights 300kg (about 600lbs) This energy amount is equivalent to 2 litres of diesel (about a half a gallon!). Just tells you how much there is to be done in the battery technology yet - and how cool the electric drive is - think about it, 400mpg!
The range of course is a problem - when you try to spontaneously drive longer routes, in an emergency and the likes. But for city deliveries or driving to work and back this should be no big deal - provided you can recharge the car at home and/or your workplace parking space - that's what we need, an infrastructure. Today there are simply not enough power plants and power lines to power the cars should everybody convert to electric. Then think about how many roofs don't have a solar power plant yet?
Now if youtried to destroy the publicity for electric cars you should concentrate on battery fires. That's scary.
If you want to build publicity for electric cars, you should let everybody test-drive one. This is fun! The car is quiet, drives like an automatic transmission with great acceleration and you don't have to use any brakes - you just push the throttle for "go" and let go off it for "stop" (getting the energy back instead of losing it - hence the great mileage here). The people driving our delivery vans professionally loved them.
And in the end I think if we want to save the planet, we will have to let go on the concept of privately owned cars. Yes, I know it's unthinkable in the USA - but in the long run I don't think privately owned cars - electric or otherwise - are sustainable if we want our planet to stay habitable.
Thanks for reading and have a nice day
Paweł