The idea, as I understand it, is that: A. Before the 2038 date the article suggests we must move to EV by, many/most cars will need to be replaced. So, the suggestion isn't necessarily to throw away good cars, as much as to replace them with an EV when they are replaced. B. Currently the electricity used to charge your EV may not be emission free, but someday it might be. Whereas gasoline will never be emission free. And if everyone has EV's already, then the benefit of cleaning the grid becomes greater and easier to justify to a decisionmaker. So while EVs wont solve the problem, it maybe could be said that the problem cannot be solved without first switching to EVs.