Driving an electric vehicle Ohio will generate fewer pollution than driving a gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicle. That is true even if use electricity generated by burning coal and/or natural gas.
The reason: an electric motor is so much more efficient than an internal combustion engine. EVs lose about 20% of their energy as waste heat to drag and friction, while internal combustion engine vehicles lose about 80% of their energy as waste. And that difference also translates into savings for you in operating costs. For each dollar you put into an EV, about 80 cents goes toward moving the car down the road, while for an internal combustion engine vehicle only about 20 cents per dollar moves the car.
To demonstrate how these differences add up, I calculated the carbon (CO2) emissions from my 2020 Kia Niro EV for various sources of renewable and fossil fuel electricity and compared then with the emissions from gasoline and diesel vehicles.
CO2 emissions from fossil fuel powered cars are greater than from EVs, even when the EV is powered by grid electricity.
The results are striking. I live in Hudson, and like 20% of my neighbors get my power from First Energy. As a result, I can select my generation provider. I choose to I power my EV with 100% wind power purchased over the grid using the PUCO’s Energy Choice Ohio program. In the 53,000 miles that I’ve driven my EV, I’ve emitted ~338 pounds of CO2.
Had I powered the car with standard grid electricity purchased from First Energy, a mix of fossil fuels, nuclear and renewables, my EV would have emitted 12,712 pounds of CO2. Now 80% of residents in Hudson get their electricity from Hudson Public Power (HPP), which has a higher percentage of coal than the standard grid mix from First Energy. If my electricity provider were Hudson Public Power, my EV would have emitted 18,845 pounds of CO2.
If you want to reduce CO2 emissions (and particulate emissions that have an negative impact on air quality and health), driving an EV is much cleaner than driving a fossil fuel powered car. An added bonus is that it will also cost you less to power your EV than to buy expensive gas or diesel fuel.