The salesman could very well be correct. The reality is the numbers are incredibly contextual relative to specifically where you live.
A great example of this exercise was Harry Metcalfe actually doing the digging and the math to attempt to objectively measure his impact, and whether an EV or PHEV made sense as a daily given where he specifically lives in the UK is primarily powered by coal: https://youtu.be/k15n6QAe8cE
For him, right now, PHEV was lower impact, but he makes it clear that that will very likely change over time, and that if he lived elsewhere, he likely would’ve went EV.
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This is a classic example of, “it depends.” If you live in an era with lots of sustainable energy, it’s likely a no brainer, but the math changes if you lived in an area powered by a lot of natural gas, or around Appalachia which is still predominantly coal. To answer the question, you have to get the information and do the math to understand what decision you want to make, given your requirements and goals.
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For the record, Harry’s Garage (and Harry’s Farm) is a gem of YouTube’s car community. He doesn’t need it to make money, so he just does what he wants and goes down a lot of very nerdy rabbit holes (including sustainable energy, gov’t farm and energy policies), and actually USES his cars for REAL trips — like taking his Testarossa through the Sahara, etc. Harry was basically an “eccentric super car owner” in the 80s/90s (and ghost wrote articles in UK car mags for a while as an “anonymous/eccentric super car owner”) that ultimately founded EVO Magazine, helped influence a lot of the cinematic direction for the Top Gear reboot in the early 2000s, and was the inspiration for “Clarkson’s Farm.”
He’s a nerd’s nerd, and an absolute treasure.