Originally Posted by
bitterproffit
A lot of that would depend upon the method of power generation.
In my area, the majority of power is produced by burning coal. Therefore, an electric vehicle is literally running on coal. We are slowly trying to generate more through hydro, wind, and solar, but, for now, TVA (our power generator) is 37% nuclear, 24% coal (my area), 20% natural gas, 9% hydro, 3% wind.
Nationwide:
63% fossil fuel (27% coal)
19% nuclear
18% renewable
I don't think anyone has done a study on the percentage of power generation emissions can be allocated to electric vehicles (probably a tiny amount) and compare that to traditional vehicle emissions. I would bet it is much smaller, but it most certainly is not zero.
This is part of the reason for me I'm staying with internal-combustion cars, in that there is still environmental impact from charging electric vehicles. What I do is walk, bike, and use public transport when I can. I also maintain my car regularly, and drive carefully to save fuel.
Where I see benefit to electric vehicles is in local commercial traffic, including buses, mail/package delivery, and airport service vehicles. Electric commercial vehicles would help improve local air quality by taking burning fuel and engine idling out of the equation, and might save money.