EVs are nearly as old as ICE, the first model T was an EV. ICE was implemented over EVs because EVs were expensive, heavy, and had limited range.
Sound familiar?
"but but but its new" STFU. GM was making a modern EV in the 90s with the EV1. We were playing with this tech in the 70s. Lithium batteries have been around since the 90s. None of this is new.
You're quite wrong. EVs were actually some of the first cars, that's true. But they quickly died off, replaced by ICE cars. The hiccups of EV tech in the 90s doesn't come close to the decades of R&D done with ICE cars.
In other words, the total R&D time of EVs is much shorter than ICE because ICE R&D has been CONTINUOUS.