But, “we found there is a big advantage to retiring the gas vehicles early.” Most notably, it ignored the emissions that went into making the gas car, treating them instead as a sunk cost. In upstate NY, which generates a lot of hydroelectric power, getting around in an EV is like driving a gas car that gets 219 mpg. Here's HowCampbell’s study identified few exceptions to the conclusion that replacing a gas car with an electric one significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. “We’re trying to show that there’s not an environmental motivation for extending the lifetime of a gas vehicle,” he said.