Abstract
The transportation sector has been reported as a key contributor to the emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. Hence, the need for the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) into the transportation sector. However, the competitiveness of the EVs with the conventional internal combustion engine vehicles has been a bone of contention. Life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is an important tool that can be employed to determine the competitiveness of a product in its early stage of production. This review examines different published articles on LCCA of EVs using Scopus and Web of Science databases. The time trend of the published articles from 2001 to 2019 was examined. Moreover, the LCC obtained from the different models of EVs were compared. There was a growing interest in research on the LCC of EVs as indicated by the upward increase in the number of published articles. A variation in the LCC of the different EVs studied was observed to depend on several factors. Based on the LCC, EVs were found not yet competitive with conventional internal combustion engine cars due to the high cost of batteries. However, advancement in technologies with incentives could bring down the cost of EV batteries to make it competitive in the future.
Highlights
The transportation sector is one of the highest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions [1,2]
The quest to address the challenges of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from internal combustion engine vehicles has given rise to various alternative vehicles powered using low carbon fossil fuel such as compressed natural gas, liquid natural gas, and liquid petroleum gas [5,6]
The life cycle assessment of the vehicles powered by these low carbon fuels revealed that the equivalent CO2 emission is comparatively lower compared to the internal combustion engine vehicles [9,10]
Summary
The transportation sector is one of the highest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions [1,2]. The demand for internal combustion engine cars is on the increase, will naturally translate to the emissions of more carbon dioxide in the future [4]. The quest to address the challenges of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from internal combustion engine vehicles has given rise to various alternative vehicles powered using low carbon fossil fuel such as compressed natural gas, liquid natural gas, and liquid petroleum gas [5,6]. The life cycle assessment of the vehicles powered by these low carbon fuels revealed that the equivalent CO2 emission is comparatively lower compared to the internal combustion engine vehicles [9,10].
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