Regionalized climate footprints of battery electric vehicles in Europe

Christine Roxanne Hung,Steve Völler,Maxime Agez,Guillaume Majeau-Bettez,Anders Hammer Strømman

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129052

Christine Roxanne Hung, Steve Völler + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129052

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Abstract

The climate mitigation benefits of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) relative to internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) are highly dependent on the carbon intensity of the electricity consumed during their production and use-phase. A consistent and dynamic approach to grid-mix regionalization of BEV life-cycle assessments in Europe is therefore necessary to offer accurate guidance to consumers and policy makers. To this end, we present ReDyFEV, a simple open-source software tool that can be used to calculate attributional, regionalized lifecycle climate impacts of BEVs in Europe for user-defined time periods, including near real-time. We determine the national lifecycle carbon footprints across all EU states for four BEV size segments and compare them to those of fossil-fuelled vehicles of similar sizes. Simplified sensitivity analyses investigate the effect of lifetime assumptions, electricity demand in battery production, and of relocating battery production to Europe on the carbon footprints of BEVs.

Highlights

The transport sector was responsible for 24% of total global green house gas emissions arising from fuel combustion in 2017 (International Energy Agency, 2019)
We adjust the lifetimes of both pow ertrain technologies; for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), we examine lifetimes of 150 000 to 250 000 km and for internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), 200 000 to 250 000 km
We can conclude that the average European mix assumption is inadequate for the evaluation of electricity-intensive technologies, such as operation or production of BEVs, where this assumption would hold greater weight over the results

Summary

Introduction

The transport sector was responsible for 24% of total global green house gas emissions arising from fuel combustion in 2017 (International Energy Agency, 2019). Of these emissions, 74% originates from road transport. Despite the urgent need to address anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, there is continued rapid growth in demand and emissions expected in the transport sector, making it a key target for climate mitigation efforts. In an attempt to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector, many cities and countries are pledging to phase out fossil-fuelled vehicles in favour of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) (IEA, 2018b). Since BEVs do not have the tailpipe emissions associated with internal combustion engine ve hicles (ICEVs), the extent to which BEVs contribute to climate mitigation is sensitive to the carbon footprint of the electricity used in both the production and use-phases of the vehicle

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