They saw it as a mistake to try and sell the electric as a touring vehicle, because its range would always be inferior to that of a gasoline powered car.
Instead, they focused on the fact that the range of electrics was sufficient for most people.
"Electrical World" wrote in 1909: "The average EV, ... has a considerably greater mileage than is actually needed in the run of business or pleasure, except where a long tour is undertaken."
"I do not believe the average daily mileage of most cars is above, say, 30 miles", said the German-American engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz to the New York Times in 1915