in the UK, where more than half of the electricity generated comes from burning fossil fuels, electric cars are only really moving the pollution from one place to another.
Bit out of date with your data, Giles. At no time in the last year has coal generation exceeded 28% of generation output. We currently run around 50% gas, 20% nuke, 10% renewables, 20% coal, but obviously the actual balance varies according to the available output from renewables. Right at this minute it's <10% coal.
Even if coal power stations are used, the pollution emitted is way lower than what would be produced by the individual diesel engines, and of course the stations aren't located in areas where there are loads of people to be poisoned.
Whichever way you look at it from a pollution point of view EVs make good sense.