TY  - JOUR
A1  - Helmers, Eckard
A1  - Weiss, Martin
T1  - Advances and critical aspects in the life-cycle assessment of battery electric cars
T2  - Energy and Emission Control Technologies
N2  - Concerns over climate change, air pollution, and oil supply have stimulated the market for battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The environmental impacts of BEVs are typically evaluated through a standardized life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Here, the LCA literature was surveyed with the objective to sketch the major trends and challenges in the impact assessment of BEVs. It was found that BEVs tend to be more energy efficient and less polluting than conventional cars. BEVs decrease exposure to air pollution as their impacts largely result from vehicle production and electricity generation outside of urban areas. The carbon footprint of BEVs, being highly sensitive to the carbon intensity of the electricity mix, may decrease in the nearby future through a shift to renewable energies and technology improvements in general. A minority of LCAs covers impact categories other than carbon footprint, revealing a mixed picture. Up to date little attention is paid so far in LCA to the efficiency advantage of BEVs in urban traffic, the gap between on-road and certified energy consumption, the local exposure to air pollutants and noise and the aging of emissions control technologies in conventional cars. Improvements of BEV components, directed charging, second-life reuse of vehicle batteries, as well as vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid applications will significantly reduce the environmental impacts of BEVs in the future.
KW  - toxic emissions
KW  - China
KW  - energy use
KW  - carbon footprint
KW  - impact categories
KW  - environmental impact
KW  - health impact
KW  - Kraftfahrzeugindustrie
KW  - Elektromobilität
KW  - Batteriefahrzeug
KW  - Umweltbilanz
KW  - CO2-Bilanz
Y1  - 2017
UR  - https://hst.opus.hbz-nrw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/184
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:tr5-1842
VL  - 5
SP  - 1
EP  - 18
PB  - Dove Press
ER  -