IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v260y2020ics0306261919319233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The transport of goods in the urban environment: A comparative life cycle assessment of electric, compressed natural gas and diesel light-duty vehicles

Author

Listed:
  • Marmiroli, Benedetta
  • Venditti, Mattia
  • Dotelli, Giovanni
  • Spessa, Ezio

Abstract

A comparative environmental assessment of electric and traditional light-duty vehicles has been performed in the present study. The analysis has focused on an aspect that has often been overlooked in electric mobility Life Cycle Assessments: the transport of goods in urban environments. The analysis has been performed using primary data from the manufacturer for the production of light-duty vehicles and an ad hoc kinematic model for the use phase.

Suggested Citation

  • Marmiroli, Benedetta & Venditti, Mattia & Dotelli, Giovanni & Spessa, Ezio, 2020. "The transport of goods in the urban environment: A comparative life cycle assessment of electric, compressed natural gas and diesel light-duty vehicles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:260:y:2020:i:c:s0306261919319233
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114236
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261919319233
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114236?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. Bi, Zicheng & Song, Lingjun & De Kleine, Robert & Mi, Chunting Chris & Keoleian, Gregory A., 2015. "Plug-in vs. wireless charging: Life cycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions for an electric bus system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 11-19.
    2. Zicheng Bi & Robert Kleine & Gregory A. Keoleian, 2017. "Integrated Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Cost Model for Comparing Plug-in versus Wireless Charging for an Electric Bus System," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 21(2), pages 344-355, April.
    3. Raphaëlle Ducret & Loïc Delaître, 2013. "Parcel Delivery And Urban Logistics- Changes In Urban Courier, Express And Parcel Services: The French Case," Post-Print halshs-00853932, HAL.
    4. Meyer, I. & Leimbach, M. & Jaeger, C.C., 2007. "International passenger transport and climate change: A sector analysis in car demand and associated CO2 emissions from 2000 to 2050," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6332-6345, December.
    5. Maarten Messagie & Faycal-Siddikou Boureima & Thierry Coosemans & Cathy Macharis & Joeri Van Mierlo, 2014. "A Range-Based Vehicle Life Cycle Assessment Incorporating Variability in the Environmental Assessment of Different Vehicle Technologies and Fuels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-16, March.
    6. Troy R. Hawkins & Bhawna Singh & Guillaume Majeau‐Bettez & Anders Hammer Strømman, 2013. "Comparative Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Conventional and Electric Vehicles," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 17(1), pages 53-64, February.
    7. Hammond, Geoffrey P. & Hazeldine, Tom, 2015. "Indicative energy technology assessment of advanced rechargeable batteries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 559-571.
    8. Christos S. Ioakimidis & Alberto Murillo-Marrodán & Ali Bagheri & Dimitrios Thomas & Konstantinos N. Genikomsakis, 2019. "Life Cycle Assessment of a Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) Electric Vehicle Battery in Second Life Application Scenarios," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-14, May.
    9. Horn, Michael & MacLeod, Jennifer & Liu, Meinan & Webb, Jeremy & Motta, Nunzio, 2019. "Supercapacitors: A new source of power for electric cars?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 93-103.
    10. Bartolozzi, I. & Rizzi, F. & Frey, M., 2013. "Comparison between hydrogen and electric vehicles by life cycle assessment: A case study in Tuscany, Italy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 103-111.
    11. 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.
    12. Sanfélix, Javier & Messagie, Maarten & Omar, Noshin & Van Mierlo, Joeri & Hennige, Volker, 2015. "Environmental performance of advanced hybrid energy storage systems for electric vehicle applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 925-930.
    13. Garcia, Rita & Freire, Fausto, 2017. "A review of fleet-based life-cycle approaches focusing on energy and environmental impacts of vehicles," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 935-945.
    14. Ma, Hongrui & Balthasar, Felix & Tait, Nigel & Riera-Palou, Xavier & Harrison, Andrew, 2012. "A new comparison between the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of battery electric vehicles and internal combustion vehicles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 160-173.
    15. Javier Sanfélix & Cristina De la Rúa & Jannick Hoejrup Schmidt & Maarten Messagie & Joeri Van Mierlo, 2016. "Environmental and Economic Performance of an Li-Ion Battery Pack: A Multiregional Input-Output Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, July.
    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. Mattia Rapa & Laura Gobbi & Roberto Ruggieri, 2020. "Environmental and Economic Sustainability of Electric Vehicles: Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing Evaluation of Electricity Sources," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-16, November.
    2. Jani Das, 2022. "Comparative life cycle GHG emission analysis of conventional and electric vehicles in India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 13294-13333, November.
    3. Scorrano, Mariangela & Danielis, Romeo & Giansoldati, Marco, 2021. "Electric light commercial vehicles for a cleaner urban goods distribution. Are they cost competitive?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Gil Ribeiro, Carolina & Silveira, Semida, 2024. "The impact of financial incentives on the total cost of ownership of electric light commercial vehicles in EU countries," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    5. 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).
    6. Oliveira, Renata Lúcia Magalhães de & Santos, Igor Vieira & Graciano, Guilherme Fonseca & Cunha Libânio, André Augusto & Kelli de Oliveira, Leise & Bracarense, Lílian dos Santos Fontes Pereira, 2021. "A sustainable approach for urban farming based on city logistics concepts for local production and consumption of vegetables," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. Diskin, David & Kuhr, Yonah & Ben-Hamo, Ido Yohai & Spatari, Sabrina & Tartakovsky, Leonid, 2023. "Environmental benefits of combined electro-thermo-chemical technology over battery-electric powertrains," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 351(C).
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Li, Chengjiang & Jia, Tingwen & Wang, Honglei & Wang, Xiaolin & Negnevitsky, Michael & Hu, Yu-jie & Zhao, Gang & Wang, Liang, 2023. "Assessing the prospect of deploying green methanol vehicles in China from energy, environmental and economic perspectives," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PE).
    11. Matteo Prussi & Lorenzo Laveneziana & Lorenzo Testa & David Chiaramonti, 2022. "Comparing e-Fuels and Electrification for Decarbonization of Heavy-Duty Transports," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-17, October.
    12. Thomas Märzinger & David Wöss & Petra Steinmetz & Werner Müller & Tobias Pröll, 2021. "Novel Modelling Approach for the Calculation of the Loading Performance of Charging Stations for E-Trucks to Represent Fleet Consumption," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-15, June.
    13. 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).
    14. Li, Chengjiang & Hao, Qianwen & Wang, Honglei & Hu, Yu-jie & Xu, Guoteng & Qin, Quande & Wang, Xiaolin & Negnevitsky, Michael, 2024. "Assessing green methanol vehicles' deployment with life cycle assessment-system dynamics model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 363(C).
    15. Ioana-Cristina Badea & Beatrice-Adriana Șerban & Ioana Anasiei & Dumitru Mitrică & Mihai Tudor Olaru & Andrey Rabin & Mariana Ciurdaș, 2023. "The Energy Storage Technology Revolution to Achieve Climate Neutrality," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-24, December.
    16. Marina Bertolini & Giulia De Matteis & Alessandro Nava, 2024. "Sustainable Last-Mile Logistics in Economics Studies: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-16, January.
    17. Sergio Maria Patella & Gianluca Grazieschi & Valerio Gatta & Edoardo Marcucci & Stefano Carrese, 2020. "The Adoption of Green Vehicles in Last Mile Logistics: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-29, December.
    18. Fangyuan Zheng & Haeng Muk Cho, 2024. "The Comprehensive Effects of Nano Additives on Biodiesel Engines—A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-21, August.
    19. Yash Kotak & Carlos Marchante Fernández & Lluc Canals Casals & Bhavya Satishbhai Kotak & Daniel Koch & Christian Geisbauer & Lluís Trilla & Alberto Gómez-Núñez & Hans-Georg Schweiger, 2021. "End of Electric Vehicle Batteries: Reuse vs. Recycle," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-15, April.
    20. Guwen Tang & Meng Zhang & Fei Bu, 2023. "Vehicle Environmental Efficiency Evaluation in Different Regions in China: A Combination of the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Two-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-24, August.
    21. Andrea Temporelli & Paola Cristina Brambilla & Elisabetta Brivio & Pierpaolo Girardi, 2022. "Last Mile Logistics Life Cycle Assessment: A Comparative Analysis from Diesel Van to E-Cargo Bike," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-18, October.
    22. Rachana Vidhi & Prasanna Shrivastava & Abhishek Parikh, 2021. "Social and Technological Impact of Businesses Surrounding Electric Vehicles," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-17, February.
    23. Oscar Castillo & Roberto Álvarez, 2023. "Electrification of Last-Mile Delivery: A Fleet Management Approach with a Sustainability Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-30, December.

    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. Kevin Joseph Dillman & Áróra Árnadóttir & Jukka Heinonen & Michał Czepkiewicz & Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir, 2020. "Review and Meta-Analysis of EVs: Embodied Emissions and Environmental Breakeven," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-28, November.
    2. 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.
    3. Crossin, Enda & Doherty, Peter J.B., 2016. "The effect of charging time on the comparative environmental performance of different vehicle types," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 716-726.
    4. 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.
    5. Sergio Maria Patella & Flavio Scrucca & Francesco Asdrubali & Stefano Carrese, 2019. "Traffic Simulation-Based Approach for A Cradle-to-Grave Greenhouse Gases Emission Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-14, August.
    6. 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).
    7. Rangaraju, Surendraprabu & De Vroey, Laurent & Messagie, Maarten & Mertens, Jan & Van Mierlo, Joeri, 2015. "Impacts of electricity mix, charging profile, and driving behavior on the emissions performance of battery electric vehicles: A Belgian case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 496-505.
    8. Rosario Tolomeo & Giovanni De Feo & Renata Adami & Libero Sesti Osséo, 2020. "Application of Life Cycle Assessment to Lithium Ion Batteries in the Automotive Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-16, June.
    9. Harris, Andrew & Soban, Danielle & Smyth, Beatrice M. & Best, Robert, 2020. "A probabilistic fleet analysis for energy consumption, life cycle cost and greenhouse gas emissions modelling of bus technologies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    10. 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.
    11. Peters, Jens F. & Baumann, Manuel & Zimmermann, Benedikt & Braun, Jessica & Weil, Marcel, 2017. "The environmental impact of Li-Ion batteries and the role of key parameters – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 491-506.
    12. 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.
    13. Kalghatgi, Gautam, 2018. "Is it really the end of internal combustion engines and petroleum in transport?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 965-974.
    14. Ruan, Jiageng & Walker, Paul & Zhang, Nong, 2016. "A comparative study energy consumption and costs of battery electric vehicle transmissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 119-134.
    15. Ruan, Jiageng & Walker, Paul D. & Watterson, Peter A. & Zhang, Nong, 2016. "The dynamic performance and economic benefit of a blended braking system in a multi-speed battery electric vehicle," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1240-1258.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Robin Smit & Daniel William Kennedy, 2022. "Greenhouse Gas Emissions Performance of Electric and Fossil-Fueled Passenger Vehicles with Uncertainty Estimates Using a Probabilistic Life-Cycle Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-29, March.
    19. Oda, Hiromu & Noguchi, Hiroki & Fuse, Masaaki, 2022. "Review of life cycle assessment for automobiles: A meta-analysis-based approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    20. Antje-Mareike Dietrich & Christian Leßmann & Arne Steinkraus, 2016. "Kaufprämien für Elektroautos: Politik auf dem Irrweg?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 69(11), pages 21-26, June.

    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:260:y:2020:i:c:s0306261919319233. 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.