Once you get small and cheap nuclear power plants I can imagine pairing them with local wireless power transmission. No cords, no battery packs, just the receiver. Tesla would be proud.
They already make pneumatic power tools (obviously cord dependent), so battery or electric plug in aren't the only choices.
I wonder how much the technology we're used to is contingent on path dependency, rather than being the only way to do it. As one example, Zeppelins are highly fuel efficient and could theoretically replace or outcompete truck and rail freight transport, but the Hindenburg disaster cut that path short, and road and rail were already developed. But could the paths have started at different times, such that it came out the other way around?
On it's face the wheel seems hard to beat and hard to delay, but maybe that's Earth-centric. Posit a low grav or dense atmo world with a gas bag branch of fauna or flora and they might take a completely different path.
