Lifecycle Analysis Comparison of a Battery Electric Vehicle and a Conventional Gasoline Vehicle

California Air Resources Board, June 2012
Lifecycle Analysis Comparison of a Battery Electric Vehicle and a Conventional Gasoline Vehicle
Kimberly Aguirre, Luke Eisenhardt, Christian Lim, Brittany Nelson, Alex Norring, Peter Slowik, Nancy Tu
Abstract
California continues to be an environmental leader with the implementation of AB32. The California Air Resource Board (CARB) has enacted several programs to ensure the success of this groundbreaking bill. This study, in association with CARB, calculates the energy inputs and CO2 equivalents emissions of a conventional gasoline vehicle (CV), a hybrid vehicle, and a battery electric vehicle (BEV) to determine the lifecycle environmental costs of each specific to California. A hybrid model’s results were generated based off of a weighted-average of CV and BEV results, using ⅙ of the battery from the BEV data. Data used were a compilation of the California GREET model, Argonne National Laboratory articles and other relevant peer-reviewed literature. The base cases of these models were then analyzed to test the sensitivity of a variety of assumptions, including carbon intensity of gasoline and electricity, varied electricity mixes, battery lifetime, and fuel economy. A cost effectiveness for each vehicle type was also calculated; the hybrid vehicle was found to be the most cost effective for reducing CO2. The net present cost of all vehicles was also calculated resulting in the hybrid being the least expensive over its lifetime, followed by the CV, and finally the BEV. The main purpose of this study was to examine the environmental impact of each vehicle type, taking into account the lifecycle energy usage and both CO2 equivalents and air pollution emitted. In terms of environmental impacts, the BEV was determined to have the least overall impact, followed by the hybrid, and lastly the CV.
This research delves into examining and quantifying lifecycle energy requirements and emissions of a battery electric vehicle (BEV), a hybrid vehicle, and a conventional gasoline vehicle (CV). To collect all of the applicable data, a number of assumptions were made based on trends seen throughout the literature review.
We are interested in what scenarios a BEV will prove to be a better alternative to a hybrid and a CV. We conducted lifecycle assessments for both the BEV and CV, and used weighted averages and extrapolation to produce the data for a hybrid vehicle. We performed a sensitivity analysis to determine the effects on energy and emissions of changing several important variables, which included the carbon intensity of gasoline and electricity, the electricity mix, the life of the battery, and the fuel economy of the CV and BEV. We focus specifically on driving the vehicles in California (CA), but we also expanded our analysis to include the effects of charging the BEV with a United States (U.S.) average electricity mix and a Chinese average electricity mix.
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