Life Cycle Assessment for Vehicle Fleets – Combination of Life Cycle Assessment and Emissions Forecast for Overall Environmental Assessment of Existing and Future Alternative Powertrains and Fuels

Authors

Dr. T. Bruckmüller, Dr. W. Tober, Vienna University of Technology:

Year

2021

Print Info

Production/Publication ÖVK

Summary

Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) as well as alternative renewable fuels (e-fuels) are becoming increasingly important. In addition to direct emissions during vehicle operation (tank to wheel, TTW), emissions of the production of the vehicle and the energy generation (electricity or fuel) for its operation play an increasing role, which are considered in a life cycle assessment (LCA). However, a typical LCA does not consider temporal changes in energy generation and likewise in fleet development over several years. The consideration of the fleet development is done in an emission forecast, which has so far only been applied for direct emissions. In this study, the methods of LCA and emission forecasting are combined to form a new method, the LCA emission forecasting. The central concept of this method is to count emissions at the time they occur. By considering the entire vehicle fleet over any given time period, it is possible for the first time to fully assess the impact of alternative powertrains and fuels on the vehicle fleet. The application of the new methodology shows that the consideration of LCA emissions results in significantly higher values than the TTW-only approach. The expected emission reduction of passenger cars and light-duty vehicles in Austria in the base scenario by 2040 (assuming 30 % BEV fleet and about 15 % renewable fuel share) is 44 % for CO₂e TTW emissions by 2040 (based on 2019), while the reduction of LCA emissions is significantly lower at 25 % in the same period.

Number of pages

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