You smug rich people with your Teslas and energy-draining mega-mansions should be proud.

Los Angeles is the nation's leader in electric car sales. ChargePoint, the company that runs the nation's largest network of charging stations, says Angelenos bought 5,000 of the plug-in cars in the third quarter of 2013. That's more sales than any other city in America experienced during that time.

Not only that …
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 … but we have the highest number of EVs on U.S. streets, 27,411 worth, the firm says.

Unfortunately (or not), we didn't top ChargePoint's list of “Top 10 Regions for Electric Vehicle Growth.” Nope. On that we only made fourth place.

That's because Atlanta, the American city with the widest gap between rich and poor, has seen an explosion (a 52 percent increase) in the sales of EVs, the company says:

See also: Los Angeles Is Rich, & You Are Poor

Washington, D.C. came in second with a 21 percent boost in growth during that fourth quarter. And Portland beat out L.A.'s growth. The  Bay Area, San Diego, Chicago, Seattle, Miami and Detroit followed, says ChargePoint.

Pasquale Romano, CEO of ChargePoint:

Credit: ChargePoint

Credit: ChargePoint

 … Nearly every major automaker is coming out with a cool new EV. The electric vehicle market is no longer just growing in California's metropolitan areas – EV adoption is happening across the nation. We're well on our way to having twice the number of EVs on the road by the end of 2014. 

Meanwhile: We admire your concern for the planet, Westsiders. 

But before you start stroking yourself too hard because you just saved the environment and maybe even proved Al Gore wrong about the impending, man-made apocalypse, be forewarned that you're also contributing to global warning and pollution when you plug those cars in.

Consider the top five sources of American electricity generation, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration:

Coal – 37 percent
Natural Gas – 30 percent
Nuclear – 19 percent
Hydropower – 7 percent
Other Renewable – 5 percent

Yep. Now go turn off that A/C.

Send feedback and tips to the author. Follow Dennis Romero on Twitter at @dennisjromero. Follow LA Weekly News on Twitter at @laweeklynews.

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