Life cycle environmental assessment of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in China

Abstract

This study presents a comprehensive environmental analysis of the four main types of chargers for electric vehicles (EVs) in China to evaluate the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in their manufacturing, use, and end-of-life stages. The changes in the global warming potential (GWP) of chargers during 2020–2040 are also projected by scenario analysis, considering the electricity mix, types of chargers, and the ratio of vehicle and charger quantities as the three key factors. The results show that the home charger has the lowest cumulative energy demand (CED) and GWP, followed by public alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) chargers, and the public mix chargers (integrating both AC and DC). The CED of single charger is 1.36 MJ/kWh, accounting for 2.43% of the results of EVs, and the GWP is 94.06 g CO2 e/kWh, accounting for 1.89% of those of EVs. The developing and developed stages of China's future charger installation are differentiated in this study. In the developing stage, the proportion of GWP of chargers to that of EVs ranges from 1.31 to 3.28% in 2030 and 1.01–6.06% in 2040, while, in the developed stage, it ranges from 1.16 to 2.90% in 2030 and 0.89–5.36% in 2040. In future charger development plans, it is strongly recommended to consider the environmental burdens of different charger types, and encourage the use of home and public AC chargers. Policy makers of EVs and charger development are recommended to pay attention to the ratio of vehicle and charger quantities. As determined in by our study, it is unnecessary to pursue the uncontrolled increase in the number of chargers.