How are cars powered by electricity made from coal less environmentally damaging than cars that burn gasoline?

Question

How are cars powered by electricity made from coal less environmentally damaging than cars that burn gasoline?

In: Technology

Answer 1

23% of US power comes from coal, and this has been a on steady decline for years so it’s become less and less of a problem.

Regardless producing power on a large scale using fossil fuels is far more efficient than burning fuel in individual engines in cars.

So 1 power plant making power for 100,000 cars is more efficient than 100,000 individual gas engines.

But to address the elephant in the room, yes having more efficient sources of power generation AND electric cars would be magnitudes more efficient.

You also have to factor in the environmental pollution resulting from the production of electric cars like mining Lithium and waste. Overall electric cars are better than gas powered cars but there’s more work to be done to make things more eco friendly.