IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v206y2017icp531-540.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Electrifying Australian transport: Hybrid life cycle analysis of a transition to electric light-duty vehicles and renewable electricity

Author

Listed:
  • Wolfram, Paul
  • Wiedmann, Thomas

Abstract

Recent life cycle assessments confirmed the greenhouse gas emission reduction potential of renewable electricity and electric vehicle technologies. However, each technology is usually assessed separately and not within a consistent macro-economic, multi-sectoral framework. Here we present a multi-regional input-output based hybrid approach with integrated scenarios to facilitate the carbon footprint assessment of all direct and indirect effects of a transition to low-emission transportation and electricity generation technologies in Australia. The work takes into account on-road energy consumption values that are more realistic than official drive-cycle energy consumption figures used in previous work. Accounting for these factors as well as for Australia’s grid electricity, which heavily relies on coal power, electric vehicles are found to have a higher carbon footprint than conventional vehicles, whereas hybrid electric vehicles have the lowest. This means that – from a carbon footprint perspective – powertrain electrification is beneficial only to a certain degree at the current stage. This situation can be changed by increasing shares of renewable electricity in the grid. In our best-case scenario, where renewable energy accounts for 96% of the electricity mix in 2050, electric vehicle carbon footprints can be cut by 66% by 2050 relative to 2009. In the business-as-usual scenario (36% renewable electricity share by 2050), electric vehicles can reach a 56% reduction if fossil fuel power plants significantly increase their efficiencies and use carbon capture and storage technologies.

Suggested Citation

  • Wolfram, Paul & Wiedmann, Thomas, 2017. "Electrifying Australian transport: Hybrid life cycle analysis of a transition to electric light-duty vehicles and renewable electricity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 531-540.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:206:y:2017:i:c:p:531-540
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.08.219
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261917312539
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.08.219?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Itf, 2016. "Data-Driven Transport Policy," International Transport Forum Policy Papers 20, OECD Publishing.
    2. Howard, B. & Waite, M. & Modi, V., 2017. "Current and near-term GHG emissions factors from electricity production for New York State and New York City," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 255-271.
    3. Plötz, Patrick & Funke, Simon & Jochem, Patrick, 2015. "Real-world fuel economy and CO2 emissions of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles," Working Papers "Sustainability and Innovation" S1/2015, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).
    4. Simons, Andrew & Bauer, Christian, 2015. "A life-cycle perspective on automotive fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 884-896.
    5. Paul W. Gruber & Pablo A. Medina & Gregory A. Keoleian & Stephen E. Kesler & Mark P. Everson & Timothy J. Wallington, 2011. "Global Lithium Availability," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 15(5), pages 760-775, October.
    6. Manfred Lenzen & Blanca Gallego & Richard Wood, 2009. "Matrix Balancing Under Conflicting Information," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 23-44.
    7. ., 2016. "Some basic economics of transportation security," Chapters, in: The Economics and Political Economy of Transportation Security, chapter 3, pages 34-60, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Eichler, Stefan & Littke, Helge C.N. & Tonzer, Lena, 2017. "Central bank transparency and cross-border banking," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-30.
    9. Zachary A. Needell & James McNerney & Michael T. Chang & Jessika E. Trancik, 2016. "Potential for widespread electrification of personal vehicle travel in the United States," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 1(9), pages 1-7, September.
    10. Manfred Lenzen & Daniel Moran & Keiichiro Kanemoto & Arne Geschke, 2013. "Building Eora: A Global Multi-Region Input-Output Database At High Country And Sector Resolution," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 20-49, March.
    11. Kirsten S. Wiebe & Manfred Lenzen, 2016. "To RAS or not to RAS? What is the difference in outcomes in multi-regional input--output models?," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 383-402, September.
    12. Michael N. Taptich & Arpad Horvath & Mikhail V. Chester, 2016. "Worldwide Greenhouse Gas Reduction Potentials in Transportation by 2050," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 20(2), pages 329-340, April.
    13. Bauer, Christian & Hofer, Johannes & Althaus, Hans-Jörg & Del Duce, Andrea & Simons, Andrew, 2015. "The environmental performance of current and future passenger vehicles: Life cycle assessment based on a novel scenario analysis framework," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 871-883.
    14. Nathan D. MacPherson & Gregory A. Keoleian & Jarod C. Kelly, 2012. "Fuel Economy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Labeling for Plug‐In Hybrid Vehicles from a Life Cycle Perspective," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 16(5), pages 761-773, October.
    15. Malik, Arunima & Lenzen, Manfred & Ely, Rômulo Neves & Dietzenbacher, Erik, 2014. "Simulating the impact of new industries on the economy: The case of biorefining in Australia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 84-93.
    16. Wang, Dawei & Zamel, Nada & Jiao, Kui & Zhou, Yibo & Yu, Shuhai & Du, Qing & Yin, Yan, 2013. "Life cycle analysis of internal combustion engine, electric and fuel cell vehicles for China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 402-412.
    17. ., 2016. "Security and air transportation," Chapters, in: The Economics and Political Economy of Transportation Security, chapter 6, pages 104-121, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Onat, Nuri Cihat & Kucukvar, Murat & Tatari, Omer, 2015. "Conventional, hybrid, plug-in hybrid or electric vehicles? State-based comparative carbon and energy footprint analysis in the United States," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 36-49.
    19. Onat, Nuri C. & Noori, Mehdi & Kucukvar, Murat & Zhao, Yang & Tatari, Omer & Chester, Mikhail, 2017. "Exploring the suitability of electric vehicles in the United States," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 631-642.
    20. Björn Nykvist & Måns Nilsson, 2015. "Rapidly falling costs of battery packs for electric vehicles," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(4), pages 329-332, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kang, Jidong & Ng, Tsan Sheng & Su, Bin & Milovanoff, Alexandre, 2021. "Electrifying light-duty passenger transport for CO2 emissions reduction: A stochastic-robust input–output linear programming model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    2. Zhao, Bing & Wang, Nuo & Wang, Yixuan, 2022. "The role of different transportation modes in China's national economy: An input–output analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 92-102.
    3. Li, Peilin & Zhao, Pengjun & Brand, Christian, 2018. "Future energy use and CO2 emissions of urban passenger transport in China: A travel behavior and urban form based approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 820-842.
    4. Anselma, Pier Giuseppe, 2022. "Computationally efficient evaluation of fuel and electrical energy economy of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with smooth driving constraints," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    5. Wu, Ziyang & Wang, Can & Wolfram, Paul & Zhang, Yaxin & Sun, Xin & Hertwich, Edgar, 2019. "Assessing electric vehicle policy with region-specific carbon footprints," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    6. Khan, Muhammad Imran & Shahrestani, Mehdi & Hayat, Tasawar & Shakoor, Abdul & Vahdati, Maria, 2019. "Life cycle (well-to-wheel) energy and environmental assessment of natural gas as transportation fuel in Pakistan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 1738-1752.
    7. Zongfei Wang & Patrick Jochem & Hasan Ümitcan Yilmaz & Lei Xu, 2022. "Integrating vehicle‐to‐grid technology into energy system models: Novel methods and their impact on greenhouse gas emissions," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(2), pages 392-405, April.
    8. Zhou, Xi-Yin & Xu, Zhicheng & Zheng, Jialin & Zhou, Ya & Lei, Kun & Fu, Jiafeng & Khu, Soon-Thiam & Yang, Junfeng, 2023. "Internal spillover effect of carbon emission between transportation sectors and electricity generation sectors," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 356-366.
    9. Li, Kai & Tan, Xiujie & Yan, Yaxue & Jiang, Dalin & Qi, Shaozhou, 2022. "Directing energy transition toward decarbonization: The China story," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PA).
    10. Łukasz Sobol & Arkadiusz Dyjakon, 2020. "The Influence of Power Sources for Charging the Batteries of Electric Cars on CO 2 Emissions during Daily Driving: A Case Study from Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-19, August.
    11. Yuhua Zheng & Shiqi Li & Shuangshuang Xu, 2019. "Transport oil product consumption and GHG emission reduction potential in China: An electric vehicle-based scenario analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-26, September.
    12. Isabel C. Gil-García & Mª Socorro García-Cascales & Habib Dagher & Angel Molina-García, 2021. "Electric Vehicle and Renewable Energy Sources: Motor Fusion in the Energy Transition from a Multi-Indicator Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, March.
    13. Johana Atiaja & Flavio Arroyo & Víctor Hidalgo & José Erazo & Abel Remache & Dely Bravo, 2024. "Dynamic Simulation of Energy Scenarios in the Transition to Sustainable Mobility in the Ecuadorian Transport Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-14, August.
    14. Xu Hu & Jinwei Sun & Yisong Chen & Qiu Liu & Liang Gu, 2019. "Considering Well-to-Wheels Analysis in Control Design: Regenerative Suspension Helps to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Battery Electric Vehicles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-19, July.
    15. Xiong, Siqin & Wang, Yunshi & Bai, Bo & Ma, Xiaoming, 2021. "A hybrid life cycle assessment of the large-scale application of electric vehicles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    16. Zhang, Jin & Wang, Zhenpo & Liu, Peng & Zhang, Zhaosheng & Li, Xiaoyu & Qu, Changhui, 2019. "Driving cycles construction for electric vehicles considering road environment: A case study in Beijing," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    17. Lisa Winkler & Drew Pearce & Jenny Nelson & Oytun Babacan, 2023. "The effect of sustainable mobility transition policies on cumulative urban transport emissions and energy demand," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    18. Onat, Nuri Cihat & Kucukvar, Murat & Aboushaqrah, Nour N.M. & Jabbar, Rateb, 2019. "How sustainable is electric mobility? A comprehensive sustainability assessment approach for the case of Qatar," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 461-477.
    19. Bagheri, Mehdi & Guevara, Zeus & Alikarami, Mohammad & Kennedy, Christopher A. & Doluweera, Ganesh, 2018. "Green growth planning: A multi-factor energy input-output analysis of the Canadian economy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 708-720.
    20. Qian Zhao & Wenke Huang & Mingwei Hu & Xiaoxiao Xu & Wenlin Wu, 2021. "Characterizing the Economic and Environmental Benefits of LNG Heavy-Duty Trucks: A Case Study in Shenzhen, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-18, December.
    21. Luu, Le Quyen & Gibon, Thomas & Cellura, Maurizio & Sanseverino, Eleonora Riva & Longo, Sonia, 2024. "Integrated hybrid multi-regional input-output for assessing life cycle air emissions of the Italian power system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    22. Paul Wolfram & Qingshi Tu & Niko Heeren & Stefan Pauliuk & Edgar G. Hertwich, 2021. "Material efficiency and climate change mitigation of passenger vehicles," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(2), pages 494-510, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cox, Brian & Bauer, Christian & Mendoza Beltran, Angelica & van Vuuren, Detlef P. & Mutel, Christopher L., 2020. "Life cycle environmental and cost comparison of current and future passenger cars under different energy scenarios," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    2. Ruffini, Eleonora & Wei, Max, 2018. "Future costs of fuel cell electric vehicles in California using a learning rate approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 329-341.
    3. Nenming Wang & Guwen Tang, 2022. "A Review on Environmental Efficiency Evaluation of New Energy Vehicles Using Life Cycle Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-35, March.
    4. Nadia Belmonte & Carlo Luetto & Stefano Staulo & Paola Rizzi & Marcello Baricco, 2017. "Case Studies of Energy Storage with Fuel Cells and Batteries for Stationary and Mobile Applications," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15, March.
    5. Paul Baustert & Tomás Navarrete Gutiérrez & Thomas Gibon & Laurent Chion & Tai-Yu Ma & Gabriel Leite Mariante & Sylvain Klein & Philippe Gerber & Enrico Benetto, 2019. "Coupling Activity-Based Modeling and Life Cycle Assessment—A Proof-of-Concept Study on Cross-Border Commuting in Luxembourg," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-24, July.
    6. Maxwell Woody & Michael T. Craig & Parth T. Vaishnav & Geoffrey M. Lewis & Gregory A. Keoleian, 2022. "Optimizing future cost and emissions of electric delivery vehicles," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(3), pages 1108-1122, June.
    7. Yang, Zijun & Wang, Bowen & Jiao, Kui, 2020. "Life cycle assessment of fuel cell, electric and internal combustion engine vehicles under different fuel scenarios and driving mileages in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    8. Siqin Xiong & Junping Ji & Xiaoming Ma, 2019. "Comparative Life Cycle Energy and GHG Emission Analysis for BEVs and PhEVs: A Case Study in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-17, March.
    9. Zhang, Junjie & Jia, Rongwen & Yang, Hangjun & Dong, Kangyin, 2022. "Does electric vehicle promotion in the public sector contribute to urban transport carbon emissions reduction?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 151-163.
    10. Belmonte, N. & Staulo, S. & Fiorot, S. & Luetto, C. & Rizzi, P. & Baricco, M., 2018. "Fuel cell powered octocopter for inspection of mobile cranes: Design, cost analysis and environmental impacts," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 556-565.
    11. Kain Glensor & María Rosa Muñoz B., 2019. "Life-Cycle Assessment of Brazilian Transport Biofuel and Electrification Pathways," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-31, November.
    12. Shafique, Muhammad & Azam, Anam & Rafiq, Muhammad & Luo, Xiaowei, 2022. "Life cycle assessment of electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles: A case study of Hong Kong," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    13. Onat, Nuri Cihat & Kucukvar, Murat & Aboushaqrah, Nour N.M. & Jabbar, Rateb, 2019. "How sustainable is electric mobility? A comprehensive sustainability assessment approach for the case of Qatar," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 461-477.
    14. Hao, Han & Qiao, Qinyu & Liu, Zongwei & Zhao, Fuquan, 2017. "Impact of recycling on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from electric vehicle production: The China 2025 case," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 114-125.
    15. Doluweera, Ganesh & Hahn, Fabian & Bergerson, Joule & Pruckner, Marco, 2020. "A scenario-based study on the impacts of electric vehicles on energy consumption and sustainability in Alberta," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    16. Wu, Ziyang & Wang, Can & Wolfram, Paul & Zhang, Yaxin & Sun, Xin & Hertwich, Edgar, 2019. "Assessing electric vehicle policy with region-specific carbon footprints," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    17. Thiel, Christian & Nijs, Wouter & Simoes, Sofia & Schmidt, Johannes & van Zyl, Arnold & Schmid, Erwin, 2016. "The impact of the EU car CO2 regulation on the energy system and the role of electro-mobility to achieve transport decarbonisation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 153-166.
    18. Jarod C. Kelly & Qiang Dai & Michael Wang, 2020. "Globally regional life cycle analysis of automotive lithium-ion nickel manganese cobalt batteries," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 371-396, March.
    19. Khan, Muhammad Imran & Shahrestani, Mehdi & Hayat, Tasawar & Shakoor, Abdul & Vahdati, Maria, 2019. "Life cycle (well-to-wheel) energy and environmental assessment of natural gas as transportation fuel in Pakistan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 1738-1752.
    20. Gao, Zhiming & LaClair, Tim & Ou, Shiqi & Huff, Shean & Wu, Guoyuan & Hao, Peng & Boriboonsomsin, Kanok & Barth, Matthew, 2019. "Evaluation of electric vehicle component performance over eco-driving cycles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 823-839.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:206:y:2017:i:c:p:531-540. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.