EVs are worse for the climate because they just move the smokestack to the power plant.
The claim you picked EVs are worse for the climate because they just move the smokestack to the power plant.
Even on a dirty grid, a typical EV beats a typical gasoline car over its life. Efficiency is the cheat code: most of the gasoline you burn never reaches the wheels.
EPA’s myth page is blunt: EVs convert about 87–91% of battery energy to motion; gasoline cars put something like 16–25% of the fuel’s energy to the wheels. You can generate that electricity from coal and still win on a lifecycle basis in most places, because you are not throwing away three-quarters of the energy as heat in a radiator.
Carbon Brief and ICCT numbers: in Europe, lifecycle CO₂ is on the order of two-thirds lower than a petrol car, and the gap grows as grids clean up. In coal-heavy Poland or China the advantage shrinks but does not flip for a typical car. Location matters — use a tailpipe-plus-grid calculator if you live on an island of lignite — but the smokestack talking point as a general law is wrong.
Key figures
- Tank-to-wheel
- EV ~87–91% vs ICE ~16–25% (EPA)
- Europe lifecycle
- On the order of 60–70% less CO₂ than petrol
- Coal grids
- Advantage smaller, usually still positive
Sources
- Electric Vehicle Myths U.S. EPA
- Factcheck: 21 misleading myths about electric vehicles Carbon Brief
