Electric cars don’t use gas to go.  This results in a zero emission vehicle that saves us harmful pollution, but these cars still need to plugin to the grid to recharge and go.  And since almost half of our electricity comes from burning coal, and we’ll be using more electricity to power our homes and our cars, do we save on pollution?

One blogger is argueing that no, we don’t.

To review the math, a gallon of gasoline releases 20.35 pounds of CO2 (9,231 grams) when it is burned in an internal combustion engine. So a normal car that meets current CAFE standards of 27.5 mpg is responsible for roughly 336 grams of CO2 emissions per mile. In contrast, an HEV like the Prius, which slashes fuel consumption by roughly 40% through a combination of recuperative braking, idle elimination and electric launch will be responsible for roughly 201 grams of CO2 emissions per mile.

The following table compares typical vehicle costs (without tax subsidies) and CO2 emissions per mile for each class of vehicle. It then goes two steps further and (a) calculates an average carbon abatement cost for HEVs, PHEVs and EVs, and (b) calculates an incremental carbon abatement cost for PHEVs and EVs. Both carbon abatement costs are expressed in dollars of capital spending per gram/mile of CO2 emissions.

He finishes off his arguement by saying that we’ll be plugging our cars into a lump of coal.  For the entire article go here

Personally, I think that anything that helps to reduce our need for oil is a step in the right direction.  Replacing our source of electricity is something that’s easier to do than replacing the powerplants for every car on the road.  The sooner we get to work on our cars the better off we’ll be.  Our grid will come over time with wind and solar getting cheaper.