As you say, electric vehicles relocate pollution rather than eliminate it if the electricity is produced by a fossil fuel plant. I'm not sure I've read any estimates in overall efficiency of an electric vehicle vs an IC engine powered vehicle. Neither is very efficient.

The benefit of the electric is in improving air quality in cities where there are a lot of vehicles. I suspect, though, that many Asian cities could clean up the air a lot with the less extreme measure of replacing their many 2-stroke engine powered mopeds and scooters with machines with 4-stroke engines. The 2-strokes are very dirty, and they use considerably more gas than 4-strokes. I was in Shanghai a few years ago, and the air was blue and smelly with exhaust from the small 2-stroke bikes, and I'm sure there are cities with much worse air than Shanghai.

I think the most important aspect of supposedly clean transportation is that it is much easier to upgrade one power plant instead of 100,000 personal vehicles.

It seems that given the inescapable warm up time for Stirlings they'll never work for personal transport, but that doesn't mean they can't--via power plants--supply the power.

To learn more about....
 

Clean and green homes, automobiles and ways of living log on hereNESEA This is the website for among other thing, the American Tour De Sol. It is a road rally involving alternative fueled vehicles. On this page
the truck in the background is powered by LPG and a 96v Battery pack and belongs to the college I go to!

Go Team Kineticar!!!

Sorry for the shameless plug but oh well! LOL
:D