Derrick Swart
Headphoneus Supremus
The key is going to be global energy storage!Back when electric cars were first being considered for "real" production, I'd heard the big savings in emissions would come from trading millions of individual emission sources for a few big and highly regulated emission sources (the electrical power plants). Also, on a thermodynamic basis (# Btus of useful work output / # Btus burned), big power plants are more efficient than a car, so there's that.
I've never bothered to try to do the math on any of that. Qualitatively, I agree with @Ableza's thought: other emissions "costs" (additional fossil fuel mining for more electricity generation, more mining for electronic raw materials, more manufacturing pollution from building new components, etc) of electric vehicles will ultimately be offset by other existing industries shrinking in output.
Side note: there are a lot of hurdles for renewable/ sustainable (or whatever buzzword you want to use) energy, but none of them will survive clever people applying the correct technology for the right circumstance (e.g. solar in Phoenix but perhaps not Seattle, geothermal in Reykjavik but not Houston).
Interesting link:
https://m.energytrend.com/news/20181114-12622.html
Think, for example using deep old mine holes with the same concept.