Electice vehicles do not result in the net reduction of smog nor save any manufuanctuing polution. For example, battery production requires mining rare earth metals vs. driling for oil ,a trade-off not a solution. In particular smog is not reduced by electic vehicles because electricity must be generated in some way, such as coal, gas, or necular, each of which has its own polution issues.
There are no EVs. They are battery vehicles reflecting the electricity's origins. If I were to buy an EV in Manitoba, it would be a 100% hydroelectricity, truly zero carbon energy, car. In North China it is a 90% coal car, in France it is a 70% nuclear car, in Russia mostly a natural gas car and in Denmark a 50% wind car et cetera. But that is only as far as the direct energies go. Indirect energies going into the production of steel, plastics, glass and batteries are still mostly fossil fuels, because the world's primary energy use is now still 83% dependent on fossil carbon. The notion that any EV is a zero-carbon car is nonsense. -- Vaclav Smil - quoted in the Los Angeles Times by Russ Mitchell, Sept. 5, 2022.
Refer also to The Fallacy of Progress.
Jeffrey Sward, September 2022