I agree. It would be great if they could focus on the "It's electric" pitch. Unfortunately, the very next complaint would be: "there's no where for me to plug-in" or "it takes too long to charge the battery...what's the point, I can only ever charge it when I'm at home."
Its got to be about building interest in electric/hybrids instead. The way to do that is tell someone you are going to save them money at the pump because you are going to get them 100MPG.
Right now, I spend about $120 a month on gas -- and that's really me just going back and forth to my job. I've got about a 13 gallon tank and I get about 20 mpg. If I was able to get 1300 miles out of 1 tank of gasoline my gasoline fuel bill for one month would be 20% less than what I pay for a single week now.
Even if you add $50.00 to that cost, I would *still* come out ahead every month. My carbon foot-print might remain about the same but I would be consolidating that footprint with others at the electric company (waiting for the day when the tech at the electric company could be swapped out for something cleaner).
Unfortunately, I would not *yet* come out completely ahead financially because the cost of purchasing an electric car is still too high. However, if the cost of the car was reduced because more people were purchasing them *and* battery technology was such that they could be charged within +/- 20% of what it takes a person to fill their car today *and* their was enough infrastructure to support going cross-country, they'd be very viable.
You've got to start somewhere. Increasing awareness and showing people that they can reduce their gasoline fuel bill is one way to heighten interest in the idea of owning an electric car. Interest inspires demand which will hopefully inspire companies to invest in better battery technology, etc. When the technology is there, fueling stations become feasible.
Its a start.