For those of us in Southern California, even if electric cars aren't "carbon neutral", they are still a win for two reasons.
1) Electric cars that are stopped don't burn energy. Now, with the new engines that can turn themselves off and on quickly, that's becoming less of an issue, but there is still some amount of idling in any combustion engine.
2) The pollution involved with electric cars is concentrated, industrial point-source. This is FAR easier to mitigate than the diffuse, individual pollution sources represented by combustion cars.