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How sustainable is electric mobility? A comprehensive sustainability assessment approach for the case of Qatar

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  • Onat, Nuri Cihat
  • Kucukvar, Murat
  • Aboushaqrah, Nour N.M.
  • Jabbar, Rateb

Abstract

Electric mobility is a trending topic around the world, and many countries are supporting electric vehicle technologies to reduce environmental impacts from transportation such as greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution in cities. While such environmental impacts are widely studied in the literature, there is not much emphasis on a comprehensive sustainability assessment of these vehicle technologies, encompassing the three pillars of sustainability as the environment, society, and economy. In this study, we presented a novel comprehensive life cycle sustainability assessment for four different support utility electric vehicle technologies, including hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and full battery electric vehicles. A hybrid multi-regional input-output based life cycle sustainability assessment model is developed to quantify fourteen sustainability indicators representing the three pillars of sustainability. As a case study, we studied the impacts for Qatar, a country where 100% of electricity generation is from natural gas and have a very unique supply-chain, mainly due to a wide range of exported products and services. The analysis results showed that all-electric vehicle types have significant potential to lower global warming potential, air pollution, and photochemical oxidant formation. A great majority (above 90%) of the emissions occurs within the region boundaries of Qatar. In the social indicators, internal combustion vehicles performed better than all other electric vehicles in terms of employment generation, compensation of employees, and taxes. The results highlighted that adoption of electric vehicle alternatives doesn't favor macro-economic indicators and they have slightly less for a life-cycle cost. The proposed assessment methodology can be useful for a comprehensive regionalized life cycle sustainability assessment of alternative vehicle technologies and developing regionalized sustainable transportation policies worldwide.

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  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:250:y:2019:i:c:p:461-477
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.05.076
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    4. Nuri Cihat Onat & Galal M. Abdella & Murat Kucukvar & Adeeb A. Kutty & Munera Al‐Nuaimi & Gürkan Kumbaroğlu & Melih Bulu, 2021. "How eco‐efficient are electric vehicles across Europe? A regionalized life cycle assessment‐based eco‐efficiency analysis," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 941-956, September.
    5. Kabir A. Mamun & F. R. Islam & R. Haque & Aneesh A. Chand & Kushal A. Prasad & Krishneel K. Goundar & Krishneel Prakash & Sidharth Maharaj, 2022. "Systematic Modeling and Analysis of On-Board Vehicle Integrated Novel Hybrid Renewable Energy System with Storage for Electric Vehicles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-33, February.
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    8. Murat Kucukvar & Khalel Ahmed Alawi & Galal M. Abdella & Muhammet Enis Bulak & Nuri C. Onat & Melih Bulu & Murat Yalçıntaş, 2021. "A frontier‐based managerial approach for relative sustainability performance assessment of the world's airports," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 89-107, January.
    9. Onat, Nuri Cihat & Kucukvar, Murat, 2020. "Carbon footprint of construction industry: A global review and supply chain analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    10. Xiaojian Hu & Nuo Chen & Nan Wu & Bicheng Yin, 2021. "The Potential Impacts of Electric Vehicles on Urban Air Quality in Shanghai City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-12, January.
    11. Cláudia A. Soares Machado & Harmi Takiya & Charles Lincoln Kenji Yamamura & José Alberto Quintanilha & Fernando Tobal Berssaneti, 2020. "Placement of Infrastructure for Urban Electromobility: A Sustainable Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-18, August.
    12. Feng, Sida & Magee, Christopher L., 2020. "Technological development of key domains in electric vehicles: Improvement rates, technology trajectories and key assignees," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    13. T.E.T Dantas & S.R Soares, 2022. "Systematic literature review on the application of life cycle sustainability assessment in the energy sector," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 1583-1615, February.
    14. Shi, Lei & Wu, Rongxin & Lin, Boqiang, 2023. "Where will go for electric vehicles in China after the government subsidy incentives are abolished? A controversial consumer perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(PA).
    15. Rüdisüli, Martin & Bach, Christian & Bauer, Christian & Beloin-Saint-Pierre, Didier & Elber, Urs & Georges, Gil & Limpach, Robert & Pareschi, Giacomo & Kannan, Ramachandran & Teske, Sinan L., 2022. "Prospective life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions of electricity-based mobility options," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PB).
    16. Gaurvendra Singh & Subhas Chandra Misra & Yash Daultani & Shubhendu Singh, 2024. "Electric vehicle adoption and sustainability: Insights from the bibliometric analysis, cluster analysis, and morphology analysis," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 635-659, June.
    17. Saleh Aseel & Hussein Al-Yafei & Murat Kucukvar & Nuri C. Onat, 2021. "Life Cycle Air Emissions and Social Human Health Impact Assessment of Liquified Natural Gas Maritime Transport," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-19, September.
    18. Piotr Przybyłowski & Adam Przybyłowski & Agnieszka Kałaska, 2021. "Utility Method as an Instrument of the Quality of Life Assessment Using the Examples of Selected European Cities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-14, May.

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