You're right that personal electric vehicles are overhyped as a solution. They don't solve the fundamental issues that plague urban America, namely our dogshit inefficient land use that simultaneously requires and caters to people who drive personal automobiles to every destination.

There is no viable future for this city or the US generally that doesn't involve many fewer people driving personal vehicles for their daily comings and goings. We have to provide them with other options, and live in communities that are built to make those options viable. There's simply no other way around it.