Abstract
The promotion of hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs) has been proposed as one promising solution for reducing transport energy consumption and mitigating vehicular emissions in China. In this study, the energy and environmental impacts of hybrid and EVs during 2010–2020 were evaluated through an energy conversion analysis and a life cycle assessment (LCA), and the per-kilometer energy consumptions of gasoline, coal, natural gas (NG), oil, biomass, garbage and electricity for EVs and HEVs were estimated. Results show that the EVs and HEVs can reduce the energy consumption of vehicles by national average ratios of 17%–19% and 30%–33%, respectively. The study also calculated the detailed emission factors of SO2, NOX, VOC, CO, NH3, PM10, PM2.5, OC, EC, CO2, N2O, CH4, Pb and Hg. It is indicated that the HEVs can bring significant reductions of NOX, VOC and CO emissions and lesser decreases of SO2 and CO2 for a single vehicle. The EVs could decrease many of the VOC, NH3, CO and CO2 emissions, but increase the SO2, NOX and particles by 10.8–13.0, 2.7–2.9 and 3.6–11.5 times, respectively. In addition, the electricity sources had significant influence on energy consumption (EC) and emissions. A high proportion of coal-fired energy resulted in large ECs and emission factors. The total energy consumption and pollutants emission changes in 2015 and 2020 were also calculated. Based on the energy use and emission analysis of HEVs and EVs, it is suggested that EVs should be promoted in the regions with higher proportions of hydropower, natural gas-fired power and clean energy power, while HEVs can be widely adopted in the regions with high coal-fired power ratios. This is to achieve a higher energy consumption reduction and pollutant emission mitigation. Moreover, the results can also provide scientific support for the total amount control of regional air pollutants in China.
Highlights
Motor vehicles represent a major oil consumption sector and their number has experienced a sharp growth in China during the past decade
The analysis showed that electric vehicles (EVs) equipped with fuel cells could give better performance in the medium-to-long driving range than that of those with pure batteries
Based on the change trends of the ECE during the past several years, we assumed the ECE will increase to 39.9% in 2020
Summary
Motor vehicles represent a major oil consumption sector and their number has experienced a sharp growth in China during the past decade. More than half (about 53.4%) of the crude oil used in China was imported from other countries [5], and this high import ratio will greatly impact the energy security and economic development of China, making the reduction of the gasoline consumption with the sharp increase of vehicle numbers an important but difficult problem to solve. In the context of saving transport energy consumption and reducing air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions, the promotion of electric vehicles (EVs) was proposed as one effective solution to the high energy use and pollutant emission problems. The study of actual energy and environmental implications of EVs is of great importance and necessity, in order to provide a scientific basis for the development of a strategy for promoting EVs
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