With all things considered (safety/cost/availability) it was the best technology at the time, and with the individual charging management an 18650 cell they can be managed reasonably safely from a thermal perspective - though things can escalate as we have seen with a handful if recent fires.
The safety of the technology has improved dramatically since original concept, but still with the current risks of thermal runaway and the kind of fires that occur, you don't really want a few big lithium batteries, rather lots of small ones.
I still think (intuitively) the risks from lithium are way better, or at least no worse, than driving around with a single skinned tank of highly combustible hydrocarbons, but "Tesla catches fire" sells more newspapers than "Ford Focus catches on fire", regardless of the cause.
GXY Price at posting:
40.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
