When your lefty friends or family mention "electric vehicles", scrunch up your face like you don't understand what they are talking about and ask (as earnestly as possible), "What do you mean by electric vehicle? What is that?".
When they sigh heavily and start talking about Tesla, get this look of sudden understanding on your face and say, "Oh! You mean those COAL powered vehicles! Ok, go on..."
You'll get one of two reactions. They'll either argue with you that "Teslas are not coal powered!", or they'll get confused and ask, "What do you mean, coal powered?"
Then, educate them. It's been working well for me so far.
the further down the chain from the source of the power that the engine is, the less efficient it is. as a general rule, more links in the chain cause more opportunities for inefficiency. so your car has the combustion happening right inside. The electric car has the combustion happening miles and who know how many substations in between.. an actual coal powered car might make more efficient use of the fuel consumption.