Development and application of an electric vehicles life-cycle energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions analysis model

Abstract

An expandable electric vehicle (EV) life-cycle analysis (LCA) model (EV-LCA) is developed to analyze the life cycle (LC) energy consumption (EC) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of EVs considering variations in electricity grid mix and vehicle energy efficiency performance. Employing EV-LCA as a common model platform, a case study is conducted to assess the LC GHG emissions of an average passenger battery electric vehicle (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) with a comparative internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) under real-world driving conditions in China, the U.S., Japan, Canada and EU, based on country-specific data. The model is shown to be applicable and flexible to assess the average EC and GHG emissions performance of EVs at both regional and national level under large-scale adoption. The case study indicates that currently BEVs show a positive performance in GHG emissions reduction (GER) (ranging from 30% to 80%) when compared to gasoline ICEVs globally. It is also found that the GER effect of EV is highly variable geographically due to significant differences in the electricity grid mix and GHG emissions intensity of grid electricity among countries. EVs can achieve higher GER with the development of low carbon electricity in future. The GER potential of PHEV is significantly influenced by the all-electric range (AER). Several policy suggestions are presented, including the consideration of regional characteristics in GER assessment of EVs and the need to accelerate low-carbon electricity development.