Abstract
The methodology of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an appropriate tool when it comes to comprehensively evaluate the potential impacts of human activities. The present chapter elucidates key LCA-related methodological aspects and technical parameters that a practitioner shall consider when analyzing the environmental performance of passenger vehicles. The chapter also presents a specific comparative LCA study of a hybrid gasoline-electric vehicle against a conventional gasoline vehicle. The results show the superior performance of the former under a set of selected environmental impact categories (namely, carbon footprint, cumulative energy demand, and acidification footprint). A sensitivity analysis of key technical parameters (vehicle weight, occupancy rate, fuel consumption, and lifespan) is also presented for the hybrid vehicle. This analysis highlights the high dependency of occupancy rate and fuel consumption on the environmental performance. Overall, the study shows the usefulness of LCA methodology in analyzing the environmental performance of road vehicles comprehensively and in spotting key aspects on which it is necessary to focus in order to achieve environmental improvements.
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