Will electric vehicles really create a cleaner planet ?

The internal combustion engine is dead; long live the battery electric vehicle (powered by lithium-ion batteries that are charged by coal-fired power plants).

Wait, that parenthetical part can’t be true, can it? While it is true today that the electric vehicle (EV) market is still largely powered using the same technology that drove steam locomotives in the late 1800s, things are changing rapidly.

Right now, around 30 percent of the electricity in the U.S. comes from coal. In China, that number jumps to two-thirds. Even the Netherlands, with its iconic windmills, generates 29 percent of its electricity from coal. Globally, roughly 37 percent of the world’s electricity comes from power plants that burn coal.

Those numbers have been trending down over the past several years, though. On a global basis, coal demand is down from its peak in 2014 as countries around the globe have begun to implement initiatives to curb the production of greenhouse gases, also helped by cheap natural gas and local pollution concerns. But for every action to incentivize the development of clean cars and energy sources to power them, a series of reactions occur that affect everything from raw material sourcing to consumer behavior and new technology development.