European energy and climate policies have enabled reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across many sectors, with transport standing out as an exception. In this ar-ea, one of the most promising solutions is the electrification of vehicles. In urban con-texts, the shift towards electrifying transport—particularly local public transport (LPT)—can yield significant benefits, especially when paired with an increasingly de-carbonized electricity mix, effectively reducing tailpipe emissions of both greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Nevertheless, it is essential to assess whether eliminating tailpipe emissions simply shifts environmental impacts to other stages of a vehicle’s life cycle. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), employing a comprehensive cra-dle-to-grave approach, serves as the principal tool for such evaluations. In this framework, this study focuses on the Italian situation using a dynamic LCA for elec-tricity mix. Results show that the electric bus reduces the impact on climate change (28.5 g CO₂eq/pkm vs 66.7 g CO₂eq/pkm for diesel, -57%), acidification, photochemical ozone formation, particulate matter, and the use of fossil resources. However, it pre-sents higher impacts in terms of human toxicity (both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic) and the use of mineral and metal resources, mainly due to batteries production and the use of metals such gold, silver and copper.
Brambilla et al. (Wed,) studied this question.