Life Cycle Assessment in the automotive sector: a comparative case study of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and electric car

Transportation represents one of the major contributors to several environmental burdens such as Green-House-Gas (GHG) emissions and resource depletion. Considering the European Union, light duty vehicles are responsible for roughly 10% of total energy use and air emissions. As a consequence, the need for higher fuel/energy efficiency in both conventional and electric cars has become urgent and the efforts across industrial and research players have proposed a range of innovative solutions with great potential. This study presents a comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and electric vehicles. The analysis follows a “from cradle-to-grave” approach and it captures the whole Life-Cycle (LC) of the car subdivided into production, use and End-of-Life stages. The inventory is mainly based on primary data and the assessment takes into account a wide range of impact categories to both human and eco-system health. The eco-profile of the different vehicle configurations is assessed and the main environmental hotspots affecting conventional and electric cars are identified and critically discussed. The dependence of impacts on LC mileage is investigated for both propulsion technologies and the break-even point for the effective environmental convenience of electric car is determined considering several use phase electricity sources. The analysis is completed with a comparison of GHG emissions with the results of previous LCA studies.