Actually the point made several times about electric cars being a waste because the majority of electricity comes from coal is not true. One has to consider many concepts in chemistry, electrical and mechanical engineering to understand the real advantages of electric cars. The fundamental concept is that a relatively small internal combustion engine can never match the efficiency of a large, Rankine-cycle coal plant. Of course one must consider the efficiency losses in the transmission (significant for the internal combustion auto), losses in the motors for the electric vehicle (small), transmission line losses (small, electric vehicle) and losses in the fuel refining process, too, but I have done the calculations and electric keeps a strong lead. The other fundamental concept is "distributed pollution" versus "centralized pollution." Most people do not realize that coal-fired plants can be made to be extremely clean (low Sulfur, NOx, PM and heavy metals). While we have made great strides doing the same with internal combustion autos, it just doesn't make sense to invest in the type of equipment needed to remove these pollutants to the same degree.
Finally, there are viable sources of renewable energy on the market (MW scale wind) and on the horizon (MW scale solar thermal rankine and stirling cycle).
I hope this makes it clearer that electric IS superior to gasoline, even when coal is used as the plant fuel.
