Developments in Light Vehicle Life Cycle Analysis With Application to Electric Vehicles

An LCA tool first reported on at the ASME ES conference in 2007 has been expanded and improved as follows: • More than 400 production vehicles from all over the world are now in the data base. • Conventional and renewable liquid and gas fuels are included. • Electric vehicles (EVs) and plug in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are included along with hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and conventional internal combustion engine vehicles. • The tool is now web-based. The LCA tool includes both fuel and vehicle life cycle coefficients in its data base. To illustrate the LCA ranking of vehicles using electricity (EVs, PHEVs, and HEVs) vs. conventional vehicles this paper will report on greenhouse gas emissions, total life cycle energy use along with NO_x, SO_x and mercury emissions. It will be shown, for example, that EVs are not the cleanest solution contrary to claims of various commentators in the popular press and of EV enthusiasts who do not take the entire life cycle into account.