Re: “Electric cars don’t make sense, economically or environmentally,” Jan. 6 letter to the editor.
A common, basic misunderstanding regarding electric vehicles is that they pollute via the coal-produced electricity that they use to charge. This has been thoroughly evaluated many times and found to be untrue. The reason? Electric vehicles are very, very efficient. Even if they charge using only coal-produced electricity, they use so little energy that there is still an overall reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, compared to a similar gasoline-powered vehicle.
Another common misunderstanding is that electricity is only produced in coal-fired power plants; the reality is that electricity is produced from many different sources that all feed into the national grid. Every year there are more clean sources and fewer dirty sources, which means your electric car actually produces less emissions with time compared to gas vehicles, which become less efficient with age.
David Ewert, Stockton, Calif.
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