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PhilDAS
First off, you need to split emissions in two - you've got air quality emissions and you've got climate change emissions - they are two different beasts.
One big bonus of electric vehicles is no tailpipe pollutants to give us cancer/asthma. What is less talked about is that a significant amount vehicle based emissions actually come from tyres, brakes and road wear - we can still expect this when we go electric -all the more argument to use cars less regardless!
On the climate change side, CO2 always needs to be looked at in a bigger picture - on the one hand, using electricity generated by a gas power station to power your car is still loads better than using petrol in terms of CO2.
On the other hand, is more CO2 emitted during the production process of an electric vehicle than a conventional vehicle? I'd imagine yes, but I don't know when the break even point is reached.
As our electricity grid gets increasingly greener, and production becomes more efficient, that break even point should get narrower.