A Comparison of the Life Cycle Energy Consumption and Emissions of BEV and HEV

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate over whether battery electric vehicles (BEV) contribute to reducing energy consumption and emissions compared with hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). By following the theory of life cycle assessment (LCA), a calculation model for comparing the life cycle energy consumption and emissions of BEV and HEV is built. Typical BEV and HEV are selected as the empirical objects, whose main parameters of powertrain system (including engine, battery, motor, electric control, etc.) are obtained. By using VS and Mat Lab software programming, the life cycle differences of energy-consumption and emissions between BEV and HEV are calculated and analyzed. The results reveal that the HEV is more energy-saving and environmentally friendly than BEV. This result is mainly attributed to the increase of energy consumption of BEV due to high working intensity in assembly manufacturing process. At the same time, the manufacturing process of battery, as the core component of BEV, is not as mature as internal combustion engines, which leads to higher energy consumption and emissions.