The material production cycle needs to be closed for "economies of scale" to work, or we'll be strip mining even more of the planet for a constant supply of lithium- trading one environmental insult for another. As far as I know, lithium batteries cannot be economically recycled, and that's a problem. Whether through a viable recycling method or an entirely new battery technology, the ability to reduce the up-front environmental toll of EVs would be a major win for the space. The second space to explore would be in lengthening product cycles, but it's hard to imagine that happening in our current "The Street is King" business mindset. Tesla seems all-in on lithium mining, and certainly on planned obsolescence (plenty of evidence in this thread) so I am not convinced they have anything other than profitability in mind- most notably at the expense of the same environment they claim to support. Sounds a lot like, oh, I dunno, oil companies, perhaps? With 8 billion people on the planet, that's going to cause problems.
BLUF: Outsourcing your pollution to Kurzblackistan (or, Iraq, or Arizona) doesn't make you forward-thinking. It just makes you an asshole. I'm looking at you, CA.
As for the grid, the issue isn't necessarily capacity- it's insufficient storage and politics blocking some of the most intelligent sources of power for the base load (e.g. nuclear). Finally, smart chargers are cool, but how does that help me when I have a time-critical appointment across town? The challenges of EVs will continue to be power density, charging times, and material impact.
However, for some applications, EVs are great. I have an electric mower that's awesome. Quiet, simple, clean, and efficient. Since I only use it once a week during the warm seasons, and it has 2x the capacity needed to mow my lawn, charging time and power density are not problems.