Environmental life cycle assessment of electric vehicles in Poland and the Czech Republic

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) are the future of road transport in both Poland and the Czech Republic and offer significant potential for reducing air pollution and increasing life comfort, especially in crowded city centers. This paper presents a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of EVs in Poland and the Czech Republic, considering the life cycle from cradle to grave, with a special focus on the production of the electricity required to charge EV batteries. The analyses included the current and future energy systems (from 2015 to 2050) used to charge EV batteries in the both countries. A comparative analysis of EVs and passenger vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICEVs) was carried out. In addition, the analyses considered scenarios of smart grids from which the energy for the charging of EV batteries could be supplied exclusively from renewable sources. The results showed that the environmental burden of current and future EVs is higher in Poland than in the Czech Republic for all analyzed impact categories and that this result is primarily related to the type of electricity used to charge EV batteries. The comparative analysis of EVs and ICEVs showed that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and fossil fuel depletion in Poland and the Czech Republic, both at present and in the future, will be lower in the case of EVs than in the case of ICEVs. However, the acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, and particulate matter formation caused by EVs are higher than those caused by ICEVs. The results showed that EVs coupled with renewable electricity sources offer the potential to reduce the negative impacts on the environment. It was concluded that the main determinant of the environmental impact of EVs is the type of electricity used to charge EV batteries. This is the first attempt at a comparative LCA of EVs in Poland and the Czech Republic. It is also the first approach that includes analyses of the LCA for both the present and future electricity production systems used for charging EV batteries.