Plug-ins beat your average car

Recently, as excitement for alternative vehicles like electrics has grown, so has criticism saying that electric vehicles won’t be any better because they just shift the burden of pollution from the car to the power plant.

What’s worse, some say, is that this shift could overburden an already ailing power system and cause more coal plants to be built. 

But the above graph put together by Technology Review (registration required) shows that just comparing plug-ins with each other using different power sources, in almost every case, the result is better than standard hybrids, and all cases are better than conventional gasoline-burning engines.

Similarly, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory study shows that even if newer plug-ins will require energy from the grid, they will most likely be charging at night, when there is little demand for electricity. The extra use from plug-ins might actually be helpful to spread out peaks and dips in production and usage.

The most important thing to remember, however, is that because plug-ins do shift the burden from each individual car to the power grid, the overall system becomes easier to regulate and easier to influence as more sustainable power-generation technologies become available.

Every time a new wind generator goes up and a coal plant goes offline, your plug-in will become just that much cleaner. On the other hand, gasoline engines will just grow more inefficient and polluting with time.