es7b01780_si_001.pdf (2.31 MB)
Environmental Impacts of Future Urban Deployment of Electric Vehicles: Assessment Framework and Case Study of Copenhagen for 2016–2030
journal contribution
posted on 2017-11-09, 00:00 authored by Florence A. Bohnes, Jay S. Gregg, Alexis LaurentTo
move toward environmentally sustainable transport systems, electric
vehicles (EVs) are increasingly seen as viable alternatives to internal
combustion vehicles (ICVs). To ensure effectiveness of such deployment,
holistic assessments of environmental impacts can help decision-makers
determine optimized urban strategies in a long-term perspective. However,
explicit guidance and conduct of such assessments are currently missing.
Here, we therefore propose a framework using life cycle assessment
that enables the quantification of environmental impacts of a transport
system at full urban scale from a fleet-based, foresight perspective.
The analysis of the passenger car fleet development in the city of
Copenhagen for the years 2016–2030 is used as a proof-of-concept.
We modeled and compared five powertrain technologies, and we assessed
four fleet-based scenarios for the entire city. Our results showed
relative environmental benefits from range-extended and fuel-cell
EVs over ICVs and standard EVs. These results were found to be sensitive
to local settings, like electricity grid mix, which could alter the
relative environmental performances across EV technologies. The comprehensive
framework developed here can be applied to other geographic areas
and contexts to assess the environmental sustainability of transport
systems.