Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing as Supporting Tools for EVs Lightweight Design

This study is concerned with the lifecycle impact and cost of lightweight design for Electric Vehicles (EVs). The applicability of novel materials, bio-composite and fiber reinforced thermoset matrix primarily, and related innovative manufacturing technologies, is evaluated for some relevant modules of vehicle. The study is part of the ENLIGHT European project that aims to advance highly innovative lightweight materials and technologies for application in structural vehicle parts of future volume produced (EVs) along four axes: performance, manufacturability, cost and lifecycle footprint. The preliminary results showed that, for the specific studies, material production and manufacturing represent the most critical life-cycle phases from environmental and economic point of view respectively. The trade-off between impacts of production and use phase needs to be faced by means of detailed analysis when EVs lightweight solutions are proposed.