'Green' auto movement facing an uphill climb (3)

But is coal any better?
However, burning greater amounts of coal could create emissions that equal or exceed the emissions released by conventional internal combustion engines, causing harm to the environment.
Earlier this month, the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation, a Beijing-based policy center, announced that it had been working on a report entitled "Electric Vehicles in the Context of Sustainable Development in China."
The results of the report "may surprise many", according to its authors.
In short, the report found that electrics are not always an environmentally friendlier alternative to conventional vehicles - particularly in the case of greenhouse gas emissions - because of the quantity of emissions created at the power plants that produce the electricity needed to power the vehicles.
Certainly, there are cleaner technology alternatives to coal-fired power plants for producing electricity. Some options include wind, solar and nuclear power. But each of these comes with its own challenges.
While many questions remain about the viability of electric vehicles as a clean and sustainable successor to conventional ones, one point does seem clear: Creating an electric vehicle industry will not be an easy task.
The author is director of Global Automotive Operations at JD Power and Associates.