[tkanarsky]

The advantage being that existing fuel-burning plants can theoretically be seamlessly replaced by solar/wind/hydro/nuclear or more efficient fuel-burning plants down the road -- electricity is electricity no matter where it comes from. A thermal-engine vehicle will be stuck burning the same fuel at more or less the same efficiency for its entire lifetime.

(As a cool aside, some fuel-burning power plants are already crazy efficient. For example, my university has a trigeneration plant that, in addition to electricity, provides steam and chilled water to the campus by extracting the residual heat that would normally be sent straight to the atmosphere. I believe the plant uses an ammonia absorption cycle to produce cold water from a heat source, which is pretty awesome in its own right.)

Now, I'm not sure if this process happens fast enough for an EV to be more efficient over the projected lifetime of the battery. I think it ultimately comes down to your local regulatory environment, existing distribution of energy sources, and public willingness to invest in more efficient infrastructure.