The electricity to charge the batteries has to come from somewhere, ie, it has to generated, often using coal. How stupid is that?? 
In BC, its mostly hydro-electric rather than coal.
Alberta has quite a few coal-fired generation plants and I believe BC has some as well. In some places, coal is the predominant means of generation. Using an electric car, or even an electric roller-skate like this thing, under these circumstances increases the demand pressure on the electric grid, resulting in more coal being burned, and we all know how good THAT is for the environment. Purely electric cars are stupid IMO
BC has a thermal (natural-gas-burning) plant but no coal that I know of, but we buy some power from coal jurisdictions - but that is probably an environmental good thing on both ends, so don't have fits about it.
However, like normal cars, electric cars need to be assessed on their life-cycle environmental impact, including such things as replacement of batteries, toxic metals from battery discard, etc. Hard to imagine they could be much MORE impactful than the cars we now drive, but I suppose it's possible.
