Innovative composites and hybrid materials for electric vehicles lightweight design in a sustainability perspective

Lightweight design and electrified powertrain have become important strategies in the automotive industry to reduce fuel demand and break down emissions respectively. Lightweighting of Electric Vehicles (EVs) is considered a step forward because advantages of both EVs and lightweight design could be combined to reduce environmental impacts even further. This paper would contribute to the advancement of knowledge in this field and it deals with the environmental analysis, by means of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), of composite-based and hybrid material lightweight solutions for EVs modules in comparison with the corresponding reference ones, by assuming no changes in the powertrain system (e.g. battery resizing). Particular attention is given to primary data collection to build the environmental eco-profiles of four innovative composites. Then, a four-level approach to interpret LCA outcomes in a clear and comprehensive way is proposed in this paper. Despite the relevant mass reduction, environmental benefits are not registered for all the analysed solutions, and the main reason is the large impact from the production stage of the new materials, raw materials particularly. Outcomes from this paper showed that Abiotic Depletion Potential (ADPel.) generally had a different trend if compared to Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Primary Energy Demand (PED) so their evaluation in parallel is recommended. Overall, the innovative materials that have a high impact in the production stage could not be suitable in the case of EVs where the emission rate in the use stage is lower than the one of traditional vehicle, so a different application should be also evaluated.