“Zero emissions” vehicles are defined as those that produce “no emissions from the on-board source of power”. But there is an external source of power—the plant that produces the electricity.
So a “zero emissions” vehicle produces zero emissions only in the following two cases:
- If you ensure that 100% of the electricity is produced in hydroelectric or nuclear plants.
- If the charging station occasionally shows the message “you can’t charge now because not enough wind is blowing.”
“Zero emissions” vehicles might indeed produce zero emissions in Norway, which produces practically all its electricity from hydropower. In all other cases, “zero emissions” is a euphemism for “nonzero emissions”.