Life Cycle Analysis of Passenger Cars With Electric Drive (BEV)

The life cycle analysis examines whether alternative drive technologies, such as electromobility, are actually more climate-friendly than vehicles with combustion engines. For a detailed assessment and thus a holistic presentation of the life cycle assessment, the entire life cycle of the vehicles must be mapped, starting with the extraction of raw materials and the manufacturing process of a vehicle. Frequently, there are divergent statements about the sustainability of alternative drive systems. This is often due to the fact that topics such as production or the disposal/recycling of the vehicles and, above all, the central component of the battery are often ignored. The question arises as to how and whether the current state of research provides sufficient information about these phases and their ecological assessment. The aim of the work is to present the life cycle of an electric vehicle based on the current state of research. To this end, 15 relevant studies/publications were selected for analysis and comparison. The assumptions made in the publications lead to some significantly divergent results. The energy-intensive manufacturing process for battery cells is largely responsible for the resulting emissions. Due to different assumptions, the CO2 emissions for the battery are characterized by a wide variance.