Battery electric vehicle charging in China: Energy demand and emissions trends in the 2020s

The transportation sector is the third-largest global energy consumer and emitter, making it a focal point in the transition toward the net-zero future. To accelerate the decarbonization of passenger cars, this work is the first to propose a bottom-up charging demand model to estimate the operational electricity use and associated carbon emissions of best-selling battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in various climate zones in China during the 2020s. The findings reveal that (1) the operational energy demand of the top-20 selling BEV models in China, such as Tesla, Wuling Hongguang, and BYD, increased from 601 to 3054 giga-watt hours (GWh) during 2020–2022, with BEVs in South China contributing more than half of the total electricity demand; (2) from 2020 to 2022, the energy and carbon intensities of the best-selling models decreased from 1364 to 1095 kilowatt-hour per vehicle and from 797 to 621 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per vehicle, respectively, with North China experiencing the highest intensity decline compared to that in other regions; and (3) the operational energy demand of BEV stocks in China increased from 4774 to 12,048 GWh during 2020–2022, while the carbon emissions of BEV stocks rose to 6.8 mega-tons of CO2 in 2022, reflecting an annual growth rate of ~50%. In summary, this work delves into the examination and contrast of benchmark data on a nation-regional scale, as well as performance metrics related to BEV chargings. The primary aim is to support nationwide efforts in decarbonization, aiming for carbon mitigation and facilitating the swift evolution of passenger cars toward a carbon-neutral future.