Estimation of CO 2 Emissions of Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle and Battery Electric Vehicle Using LCA

Ryuji Kawamoto, Hideo Mochizuki, Yoshihisa Moriguchi, Takahiro Nakano, Masayuki Motohashi, Yuji Sakai and Atsushi Inaba
Additional contact information
Ryuji Kawamoto: Product Strategy Div., Mazda Motor Corporation, 3-1 Shinchi, Fucho-cho, Aki-gun, Hiroshima 730-8670, Japan
Hideo Mochizuki: Product Strategy Div., Mazda Motor Corporation, 3-1 Shinchi, Fucho-cho, Aki-gun, Hiroshima 730-8670, Japan
Yoshihisa Moriguchi: Product Strategy Div., Mazda Motor Corporation, 3-1 Shinchi, Fucho-cho, Aki-gun, Hiroshima 730-8670, Japan
Takahiro Nakano: Product Strategy Div., Mazda Motor Corporation, 3-1 Shinchi, Fucho-cho, Aki-gun, Hiroshima 730-8670, Japan
Masayuki Motohashi: Product Strategy Div., Mazda Motor Corporation, 3-1 Shinchi, Fucho-cho, Aki-gun, Hiroshima 730-8670, Japan
Yuji Sakai: Department of Environmental Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, School of Advanced Engineering, Kogakuin University, 1-24-2 Nishi-shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-8677, Japan
Atsushi Inaba: Department of Environmental Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, School of Advanced Engineering, Kogakuin University, 1-24-2 Nishi-shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-8677, Japan

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: In order to reduce vehicle emitted greenhouse gases (GHGs) on a global scale, the scope of consideration should be expanded to include the manufacturing, fuel extraction, refinement, power generation, and end-of-life phases of a vehicle, in addition to the actual operational phase. In this paper, the CO 2 emissions of conventional gasoline and diesel internal combustion engine vehicles (ICV) were compared with mainstream alternative powertrain technologies, namely battery electric vehicles (BEV), using life-cycle assessment (LCA). In most of the current studies, CO 2 emissions were calculated assuming that the region where the vehicles were used, the lifetime driving distance in that region and the CO 2 emission from the battery production were fixed. However, in this paper, the life cycle CO 2 emissions in each region were calculated taking into consideration the vehicle’s lifetime driving distance in each region and the deviations in CO 2 emissions for battery production. For this paper, the US, European Union (EU), Japan, China, and Australia were selected as the reference regions for vehicle operation. The calculated results showed that CO 2 emission from the assembly of BEV was larger than that of ICV due to the added CO 2 emissions from battery production. However, in regions where renewable energy sources and low CO 2 emitting forms of electric power generation are widely used, as vehicle lifetime driving distance increase, the total operating CO 2 emissions of BEV become less than that of ICV. But for BEV, the CO 2 emissions for replacing the battery with a new one should be added when the lifetime driving distance is over 160,000 km. Moreover, it was shown that the life cycle CO 2 emission of ICV was apt to be smaller than that of BEV when the CO 2 emissions for battery production were very large.

Keywords: battery electric vehicle; carbon dioxide; internal combustion engine vehicle; life-cycle assessment; passenger car (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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