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It's just wrong. Even if all electricity was generated from coal, it'd still be more efficient. An electric generating plant has thermodynamic efficiency around 50%, line & charging losses are about 10%, while you get some energy recovered from regenerative braking. Compare that to the maybe 20% average (because it rarely runs at the most efficient point on the BSFC map) of a typical straight-IC engined car, and you come out ahead.
Then figure that only about 50% of US electriciy comes from coal. About 20% is from somewhat cleaner natural gas, while the rest is nuclear, hydro, wind, geothermal, solar, and so on - all CO2-free sources, and you're even further ahead.
The most important point, though, is that having a bunch of electric cars (either full electric or PHEV) out there is going to create a need for new generation. Individuals will do things like install solar panels to charge their electric cars, and excess can go to the grid to displace existing fossil plants. Anything done to reduce fossil generation automatically improves the transportation sector.
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