While on the road, electric cars emit no carbon dioxide. That apparently is why so many governments provide financial incentives for the purchase of electric cars by the comfortably-off to very rich people who can afford them.
Thing is, most of the electricity in the US, 61% in 2021, is generated through the combustion of fossil fuel. In China, the World's largest car market, the percentage of electricity generated from fossil fuel is 70%, most of that from sulfur-rich coal. (On the plus side, the sulfur, which is emitted to the atmosphere as gaseous sulfur dioxide, is converted by atmospheric processes to white sulfate particles that reflect sunlight, thereby significantly cooling the planet.)
And another thing, making batteries for electric cars generates a lot of carbon dioxide: up to 15 tons for an 80 kW hour battery, so say the folks at MIT.
And from the user's perspective there are other problems with electric cars. Importantly, there is a limit to the distance you can travel on a charge. Beyond that, if you want to travel further, you'll have to add more batteries. Oh sure, you can recharge en route, provided, that is, you don't mind either hanging around a charging station for hours while your battery trickle charges, or you are happy to degrade your very-expensive-to replace battery by "fast charging" in, say, half an hour.
Other draw-backs to electric cars include the added weight of the battery -- should you hit another car. Well probably it's an advantage to you, but definitely a disadvantage to the other fella.
But what's the alternative, you may ask. That's simple. Extract the carbon dioxide produced by cheap fossil-fuel-burning vehicles directly from the atmosphere. Currently, that's expensive, between $250 and $500 per ton or, at the high end, about $1.25 per liter of fuel burnt. But the expectation is that that cost will fall as the technology develops. So why not just stick a charge of $1.25 a liter on motor fuel and spend that revenue on atmospheric carbon capture?
Such a policy would have two immediate consequences. First, it would massively stimulate R and D on carbon capture technology leading to reductions in process cost and industrial-scale technology adoption. Second, it would stimulate the market for smaller, lower powered, and much most affordable fossil-fuel-burning cars, like my grandpa's pre-WW2 Standard 8. That car traveled very nicely at 40 to 50 mph, which should be fast enough for anyone.
