It's one thing for something to make sense intuitively, but it's another thing altogether to be able to prove it. So, while the tire and brake dust that electric vehicles generate can be a problem, without exhaust constantly spewing out of the back, it wouldn't be crazy to assume air quality would improve if more people drove EVs. Well, our friends over at The Autopian just covered a new study claiming that's exactly what's happened in California. Using satellite data provided by NASA, researchers studied 1,687 different "ZIP code tabulation areas" spread across the state. And in the end, they found that EVs really did contribute to a noticeable drop in nitrogen dioxide levels.