I'm curious about the impact this would have, seems like the pollution from cars is but a speck on the larger scale.
Transportation is something around 20%+ of global emissions (although I think that includes shipping + aviation).
In developing countries, if you can skip the gas -> electric transition and just go to nearly all electric in a decade and a half, then that is a huge benefit.
Also in a country like the US, transportation is actually a large part of our emissions. If you can reduce that down by EV's (and have the EV's run off of renewables or nuclear), then that will also create a good dent in emissions.
A lot of this tech is coming to a head at once. Solar + wind are going to be cheaper than coal in a decade or less, storage tech growing and getting cheaper on a similar timescale as solar, EV's are going to be hitting the same price point as some of the cheapest ICE cars in a decade.
It's going to be interesting seeing everything converge at once. We're already passed the tipping point for renewables in terms of competing with conventional energy, I doubt the world will ever go back to creating more carbon capacity in a year than renewable (last two years had renewable capacity over carbon)
Also, aren't there constantly new reports claiming that electric cars pollute just as much over their lifespan as gasoline cars?
Not really. In terms of "air pollution", there was a report that because of the extra weight of the car, when the vehicle is driving/revs up the back end will kick up more particles into the air at a rate of 25% more than an ICE.
In terms of emissions, no, EV's are far more efficient, even if you the EV gets it's electricity from a coal plant. Although the gains of going from ICE -> EV(coal) is not really much at all, which is why killing coal around the world is missions #1
