Comment by perlgeek

There are three main sources of air pollution from cars:

1) Byproducts from combustion (like soot and nitrogen oxides). Only ICE produce these, EVs don't

2) Break abrasion. EVs tend to do better, because they can do most of their breaking through the motor and recuperate a part of the energy

2) Tire abrasion. EVs tend to do worse here, because they tend to be heavier.

So yes, EVs aren't a panacea, but overall on the topic of air pollution, they score much better than ICEs.