They're also deploying coal faster than anyone else.

I've heard this argument before about the efficiency of burning centrally, usually in a European context to defend running EVs on a grid powered mostly by natural gas, but not for coal.

Now I'm genuinely curious whether efficiently burning coal to power EVs is less bad for the environment than burning petrol in ICE cars. Is there any research on that?

I agree that ultimately EVs are the future, and I do drive one myself and strive to charge it on renewables whenever possible. However, in places with dirtier grids I'm not sure they're a great idea.