article_snippet: Electric vehicles are a useful tool for fighting city summers, according to a new study.
article_snippet: Switching from vehicles powered by fossil fuels to plug-in equivalents would ease a phenomenon called urban heat island, the pure electric vehicle said.
article_snippet: The term describes what happens when city temperatures are driven higher by heat from traffic and air conditioners and by warmth, stored during the day in roads and buildings, which is released at night.
article_snippet: The researcher's simulation was based on the weather in the Chinese capital in the summer of 2012, when the city was three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit)
article_snippet: warmer than the surrounding countryside.
article_snippet: Switching vehicles to electric would have caused this to fall by 0.94 C (1.7 F), according to their model. '
article_snippet: Heatwaves kill, and in terms of climate change, even one degree can make a difference,' said Jianguo Liu of Michigan State University, who took part in a new study.