Sorry for the long post.
I alway cringe a little when I think about the widespread use of electric cars or anything else that uses battery technology as a basis for its motive force. On a small scale like a cell phone, great (but then again maybe not if its a large number of small scale item). Litium is not particularly "toxic" per se. The environmental impact of mining (for ore) or extraction from brine poses some serious risks. Read up on it. Imagine the huge demand for Lithium if we were to be even 50% dependent on that technology. If you think Fracking for oil is bad, wait till you hear how they extract Litium from salt brine and get back to me.
Then there is the problem of where the power will come from to charge ALL those Tesla's quickly when you're making a cross country or even cross state drive unless you live in Rhode Island or Vermont, etc. I don't think solar or even wind power will cut the mustard for something like that on a large scale so we are back to nuclear or fossil fuel for the power density to supply the chargers. Maybe you'd favor daming up a few thousand small rivers or a couple hundred big ones to generate more hydro. But wait, there's the snail darter, salmon and countless other critter's to worry about! (no offense snail darter lovers, just using it a well known example)
Then there are the consequences of making us (the US anyway) dependent on some other third world (right now) country for our power. Chili and Bolivia, while not third world, will soon become the Saudi Arabia of Lithium production. I know - recycle, recycle, recycle - but how many of you have thrown away a lithion ion battery instead of driving it down in your fossil fueled car to Lowes to dump in the blue battery recycle bin?
I am all for power diversity and ways to keep things "green" (I often walk out of a store with my arms full of things after telling the checkout person, "no thanks, save a tree."). I'm for as many ways as we can economically and environmentally generate electricity the better. But let us think about the "law of unintended consequences" before we leap too quickly on electric powered vehicles (be it cars or planes). Put my money on a wide variety of energy solutions, including improvements in combustion technology and maybe even a large scale natural gas fueling infrastructure.
I'd tell you a story about Chemical Weapons destruction "neutralization" vs incineration but this post is already too long.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a nuclear engineer by trade.