I work at NASA primarily supporting our aeronautics programs, and I'm excited about all-electric and hybrid-electric civil aircraft conceptual design analysis and optimization (for both fixed-wing and rotary-wing). It's one of the big "what-if" areas that is being looked at by NASA aeronautics in the next decade, and an area that has a surprising diversity of intuitive reactions within the industry at large.
Meaning, there is a camp if industry experts that feels that it is a dead end, and another that sees it as a practical way forward. My opinion is that there are gains to be made there, but practical systems will have to be designed and optimized in a far more integrated manner than how most civil aviation systems have been in the past (integrating, for instance, the design optimization of the propulsion, airframe, and mission profiles together at mid to high fidelity early in the conceptual design process).
Meaning, there is a camp if industry experts that feels that it is a dead end, and another that sees it as a practical way forward. My opinion is that there are gains to be made there, but practical systems will have to be designed and optimized in a far more integrated manner than how most civil aviation systems have been in the past (integrating, for instance, the design optimization of the propulsion, airframe, and mission profiles together at mid to high fidelity early in the conceptual design process).