[wolfram74]

My guess would be they're thinking a that running an engine to move the wheels of a car will always be more efficient than running an engine to move the wheel of a generator, transmit the electricity, charge a battery and then move the wheels of a car.

Neglecting that power plants can run at temperatures small car engines can't, getting better carnot efficiencies, or using non-combustion methods of generating electricity.

[choeger]

Not to forget the gained efficiency of distributing huge amounts of fuel to a single location vs. small amounts to many locations