The world and even your town can be kept clean by thorough plug-in electric vehicles also referred to as EVs or electric cars. In general, fewer emissions are products by EVs that smog in contrast to traditional vehicles and contribute a lot to climate change. Life and direct cycle are the two basic classifications of vehicle emissions. During the fueling process, through evaporation from the fuel system and through the tailpipe, the direct emissions are emitted. Dire emissions involve carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases (GHGs), pollutants harmful to human health, and smog-forming pollutants like nitrogen oxides. Zero direct emissions are produced by all-electric vehicles that particularly aids in increasing the air quality in urban areas.

Evaporative emissions are produced from the tailpipe emissions as well as the fuel system by plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) that have gasoline engine. However, since most PHEVs are more effective in contrast to conventional vehicles, fewer tailpipe emissions are produced by them even when they are functioning on gasoline. Life cycle emissions involve all emissions related to disposal/recycling, use, distribution, processing, and vehicle and fuel production. For instance, emissions are produced for a conventional gasoline vehicle when extraction of petroleum takes place from the ground and is further refined to gasoline, distributed to stations and burned in vehicles. Similar to direct emissions, the life cycle emissions involve a variety of GHGs and harmful pollutants.

Substantial life cycle emissions are produced by all vehicles. However, fewer life cycle emissions are produced typically by EVs in contrast to traditional vehicles because instead of burning of diesel or gasoline, most emissions are lower for electricity generation in contrast to traditional vehicles. The exact amount of these emissions is dependent upon the electricity mix of the car and does different by geographic location.