Comparative Environmental Impact Assessment of Battery Electric Vehicles and Conventional Vehicles: A Case Study of India

Abstract

The battery electric vehicle (BEV) adaptation is at an accelerated pace due to its zero tail-pipe emissions and estimated environmental benefits. However, when considering an electric vehicle's entire life cycle, the environmental benefit could be a deception. It should be reckoned whether electric vehicles are really environmentally friendly and if they are, then under which conditions? According to the literature, the carbon footprint of electric mobility varies by geographic location as well as by the regional energy mix and the environmental impacts might exacerbate by introducing a plethora of electric vehicle. Since very less research has been carried out in the Indian context; this paper contemplates the environmental impacts of BEV and compares it with conventional vehicles performing a life cycle assessment.The paramount purpose of the study is to unveil weather BEVs are low carbon transport mode in India and where do they stand compared globaly. The results reveal that out of 18 impact categories considered under mid-point analysis, BEV outperformed IC Engine vehicles for 10 categories. The green house gases emissions from a BEV is 242 g CO2eq/km at mid-point level and the single score at end-point level is 0.58 kpt compared to that of ICEV which has 2.1 kpt. Further, separate impacts from the production and the use-to-end life phase were derived to pinpoint the major emission contribution phase. At the ReCePi end-point analysis BEV favors being more environmentally friendly, however, switching to cleaner energy will further alleviate the environmental impacts.