With zero tailpipe emissions, electric vehicles are widely perceived as the greenest type of transport. But critics have long pointed to the ‘dirty’ electricity – derived from burning coal – used to manufacture these vehicles, especially in developing countries such as India. They've argued that shifting to EVs doesn’t kill emissions, it simply shifts them to another industry. A recent study by the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur suggests these critics may have a point. The study, which analysed emissions from various types of vehicles in different scenarios, concluded that while EVs are less polluting than petrol vehicles, they...