There are dozens, if not hundreds, of Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) for electric vehicles (EVs—let’s hear it for acronyms!), and to be honest, I can’t claim to be any kind of expert in them, or in the relative merits of the many different ones available. The same premise in LCAs holds true of any peer-reviewed science: transparency in sources and methods allows other researchers to verify or dispute your work. Scientists can be a jealous lot, so this system works reasonably well. A number of LCAs have been suggested to me and I have to admit I’ve only gone through a few. With time, I’ll review more, but unlike Tony Stark, I didn’t become an expert overnight. So the rest of you Avengers can just lay off for now. I need an espresso.
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The Fuels Institute is a nonprofit organization funded by a range of corporate sponsors including large retailers like Wal-Mart and large oil companies like Aramco, Phillips and ExxonMobil. A list like that might make the results suspect but I thought, not having a deep knowledge of the field, a report with likely more conservative associations would provide a useful baseline for comparison to other studies. Furthermore, the report contains side-by-side comparisons between internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
The report begins with a literature review of other LCAs of a range of passenger vehicles (from economy cars up to double-decker buses). The different studies showed a wide range of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions estimates, based on differences in vehicles and methods. Other reports focused specifically on battery life, efficiency and recycling, and the total operating cost (TOC) over the course of a 10-year or 1-200,000 mile span.
The LCA itself breaks the vehicles down into three main categories:
- Glider (body, chassis, interior, exterior and components)
- Powertrain (battery to engine to wheels)
- FluidsThese categories are then applied to:
- Sourcing (extraction)
- Manufacture
- “Well-to-tank” (WTT), i.e. energy production (whether petroleum or electricity)
This analysis shows that internal combustion (ICE) vehicles, hybrid (HEV) and battery-powered (BEV) vehicles are roughly similar in CO2 equivalent (CO2eq) emissions after 19,000 miles driven. But after 200,000 miles driven, HEVs are responsible for 28% less CO2eq than ICEs; BEVs, 41% less.
Tomorrow: life cycle assessment of a wind farm.
Be brave, be steadfast, and be well.
Sources:
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This post was previously published on Dailykos.com and is republished on Medium.
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