If Electric Cars Are Good for Reducing Emissions, They Could Be Even Better with Electric Roads
Journal article, 2022

This research investigates carbon footprint impacts for full fleet electrification of Swedish passenger car travel in combination with different charging conditions, including electric road system (ERS) that enables dynamic on-road charging. The research applies a prospective life cycle analysis framework for estimating carbon footprints of vehicles, fuels, and infrastructure. The framework includes vehicle stock turnover modeling of fleet electrification and modeling of optimal battery capacity for different charging conditions based on Swedish real-world driving patterns. All new car sales are assumed to be electric after 2030 following phase-out policies for gasoline and diesel cars. Implementing ERS on selected high-traffic roads could yield significant avoided emissions in battery manufacturing compared to the additional emissions in ERS construction. ERS combined with stationary charging could enable additional reductions in the cumulative carbon footprint of about 12–24 million tons of CO2 over 30 years (2030–2060) compared to an electrified fleet only relying on stationary charging. The range depends on uncertainty in emission abatement in global manufacturing, where the lower is based on Paris Agreement compliance and the higher on current climate policies. A large share of the reduction could be achieved even if only a small share of the cars adopts the optimized battery capacities.

prospective life cycle assessment greenhouse gas emissions battery capacity battery electric vehicles electric road system carbon footprint

Author

Johannes Morfeldt

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Physical Resource Theory

Wasim Shoman

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Physical Resource Theory

Daniel Johansson

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Physical Resource Theory

Sonia Yeh

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Physical Resource Theory

Sten Karlsson

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Physical Resource Theory

Journal of Environmental Science and Technology

0013936x (ISSN) 15205851 (eISSN)

Vol. 56 13 9593-9603

Areas of Advance

Transport

Energy

Life Science Engineering (2010-2018)

Materials Science

Subject Categories

Transport Systems and Logistics

Infrastructure Engineering

Vehicle Engineering

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.2c00018

PubMed

35735988

More information

Latest update

7/25/2022