How many people own a gasoline-powered iPhone? The very question is absurd.

Is a gasoline-powered phone possible? Technically, perhaps. But burning fossil fuel to run a precision device is outdated, wasteful and unnecessary — especially when ultra-efficient lithium-ion batteries exist.

And yet, despite those same batteries being widely available to power cars, most of us still get around by lighting a fire under a metal hood and wasting the majority of that energy as heat, noise and pollution. For all of these reasons, electric vehicles are an obvious upgrade over combustion machines — quieter, cleaner, more efficient and easier to maintain.

But instead of leading with that logic, proponents of electric vehicles have turned the conversation into a moral crusade. We have made these cars a symbol of climate virtue instead of everyday utility, and it isn't working.

Now the industry faces hurdles. Sales are stalling globally. Growth in the U.S. has slowed and in Europe is leveling off after years of gains. Even China — the world’s electric vehicle juggernaut — is showing signs of market saturation.

This is the result of making an emotional pitch instead of a rational one. People don’t want ideology, they want answers. Do electric vehicles make my life easier, cheaper, smarter? They can. But we have to start talking about them differently.

Here’s where the conversation needs to go next to keep the electric vehicle industry growing and make electric vehicles a practical choice for........

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