The amazing coal-powered car?

Adland shared a video of this clever billboard, posted outside the New York Auto Show, that contrasts the tailpipe emissions of the show's 1000+ cars with the "zero-emission" Nissan Leaf.

Nissan Billboard spews exhaust outside New York Auto Show Javits Center

Good ad, but bad environmental science. Although New York City is actually one of the lowest per-capita emissions producers in the USA, due to low reliance on coal and heavy public transit use, the majority of the United States get its electricity from coal.

Electric cars are great, when they can be sustainably powered. But considering the US produced 1,787,910 tonnes of carbon last year in coal power generation alone (not to mention sulfur dioxide and smog-forming nitrogen oxides) the trade-off is really neighbourhood tailpipes versus distant smokestacks.

What you don't see can also kill you.

What do you think?