"Tesla means something: yes, it stands for sustainability and caring for the environment"
Nope #1: http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?rssid=32951 Nope #2: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=427&t=3
Nope #1: http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?rssid=32951 Nope #2: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=427&t=3
Yes, natural gas still emits CO2 compared to a coal fired power plant. But, those natural gas emissions are much cleaner, and those combined cycle plants can be throttled much faster on demand from the ISO authority, which helps solar and wind generation.
Electric cars get cleaner every year because of this. Gas cars will always burn gas their entire life.
2016 EIA Generator Turnups: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/images/figure_6_01_c....
2016 EIA Generator Retirements: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/images/figure_6_01_d....
Also, Tesla has a closed loop recycling process for their battery packs.
And typically get worse performance over time, usually due to poor maintenance.
This might be true in the future but we aren't there yet unfortunately. This is due to the incorrect assumption that natural gas is a clean bridge fuel. Once you take into account the methane emissions/leaks from natural gas you end up with a fuel just as bad as coal and oil from a global warming perspective. This is due to methane being very dangerous greenhouse gas in the sort term (now - 100yr time period). This plus the emissions required to produce any consumer product like a car probably means for now electric cars not much better than a traditional gas car.
The only way to make these cars truly emissions free is to remove ALL carbon based energy from the chain. That includes car and battery production, charging, maintenance, and disposal. Until you do that your just switching the source of emissions around. The climate system doesn't care if the greenhouse gas comes from a car or a power plant.
The best thing we could do in the short term until we have a 100% green grid is to hold off on buying the car and walk/ride a bike :)
http://www.thenation.com/article/global-warming-terrifying-n...
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL067987/abst...
I agree natural gas isn't perfect, but we won't need it for very long.
On the technological side as projects get bigger they are running into issues. Take the large solar plant in California for example:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601071/one-of-the-worlds-...
Naturally, these are typical issues that we see when scaling any new technology up for the first time. They will be resolved, but how soon?
Secondly, and this is probably the bigger issue, without a Manhattan like project for zero emissions energy production the political drive to switch will be painfully slow. Remember how much MONEY there is in fossil fuels and these companies are not going to go silently into the night. There are large states where significant numbers of americans live (think Texas, Arizona, Florida) where the politicians won't even acknowledge global warming! (IE see who funds the campaigns). Homeowners in Oklahoma face a fee for using solar.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/oklahoma-solar-surcharge-...
Nevada got rid of net metering
http://www.marketplace.org/2016/02/23/world/nevada-solar
There was this collapse of the Cape Cod wind project last year...
https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/01/30/what-really-...
Even though we NEED to be off fossil fuels for energy generation in 12-15 years I fear we won't be anywhere close.
The best thing that can be done for the near term is limit consumption as much as possible until we are completely off ALL fossil fuels.
US electricity is about 1/3rd coal, 1/3rd gas, and 1/3rd non-fossil, according to your second link. If we take the figures from your first link and total up 1/3rd of the electric coal emissions and 1/3rd of the electric gas emissions, you get about 140, which is a lot better than any of the non-EV options. Never mind that the grid is getting cleaner all the time.
Ah yes, the typical Tesla rationalization that attempts to excuse present-day behavior. Clinging to this rationalization is the equivalent of murdering someone and then saying "don't worry about it, in the future homicide will be legal". No, homicide is illegal today and you're going to jail, and no, the electrical grid is made up of about 70% fossil fuels and you're heavily contributing to air pollution.
Not only is the amount of pollution from the electric grid important but also the basic economics that come with it. Any adult with half a brain can understand that as the usage on the electric grid increases, the incumbents gain more profits (coal, gas), which they can then reinvest into their infrastructure, in effect reinforcing their current entrenchment and preventing progress to a cleaner grid.