I know of a much better battery. It can be formed into any shape, and the car can be charged in two minutes. The battery stores and releases solar energy (albeit solar energy from millions of years ago). Its called gasoline.
You're right. Amazing, isn't it, that some people want to abandon something that has been perfected over a hundred years time that works well. However, there are very few government grants given to research it. Follow the money. Another thing, I don't believe it necessarily take millions of years; it's continually being created by nature and we just need better ways to find it (like fracking and retrieving methane from ice, etc.). Tax money would be better spent on gasoline sources.