IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v5y2013i5p1845-1862d25379.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable Mobility: Using a Global Energy Model to Inform Vehicle Technology Choices in a Decarbonized Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Grahn

    (Department of Energy and Environment, Physical Resource Theory, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg 41296, Sweden)

  • Erica Klampfl

    (Systems Analytics and Environmental Sciences Department, Ford Motor Company, Mail Drop RIC-2122, Dearborn, MI 48121, USA)

  • Margaret Whalen

    (Systems Analytics and Environmental Sciences Department, Ford Motor Company, Mail Drop RIC-2122, Dearborn, MI 48121, USA)

  • Timothy Wallington

    (Systems Analytics and Environmental Sciences Department, Ford Motor Company, Mail Drop RIC-2122, Dearborn, MI 48121, USA)

Abstract

The reduction of CO 2 emissions associated with vehicle use is an important element of a global transition to sustainable mobility and is a major long-term challenge for society. Vehicle and fuel technologies are part of a global energy system, and assessing the impact of the availability of clean energy technologies and advanced vehicle technologies on sustainable mobility is a complex task. The global energy transition (GET) model accounts for interactions between the different energy sectors, and we illustrate its use to inform vehicle technology choices in a decarbonizing economy. The aim of this study is to assess how uncertainties in future vehicle technology cost, as well as how developments in other energy sectors, affect cost-effective fuel and vehicle technology choices. Given the uncertainties in future costs and efficiencies for light-duty vehicle and fuel technologies, there is no clear fuel/vehicle technology winner that can be discerned at the present time. We conclude that a portfolio approach with research and development of multiple fuel and vehicle technology pathways is the best way forward to achieve the desired result of affordable and sustainable personal mobility. The practical ramifications of this analysis are illustrated in the portfolio approach to providing sustainable mobility adopted by the Ford Motor Company.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Grahn & Erica Klampfl & Margaret Whalen & Timothy Wallington, 2013. "Sustainable Mobility: Using a Global Energy Model to Inform Vehicle Technology Choices in a Decarbonized Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(5), pages 1-18, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:5:p:1845-1862:d:25379
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/5/1845/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/5/1845/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Takeshita, Takayuki & Yamaji, Kenji, 2008. "Important roles of Fischer-Tropsch synfuels in the global energy future," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 2791-2802, August.
    2. Azar, Christian & Lindgren, Kristian & Andersson, Bjorn A., 2003. "Global energy scenarios meeting stringent CO2 constraints--cost-effective fuel choices in the transportation sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 961-976, August.
    3. Kyle, Page & Kim, Son H., 2011. "Long-term implications of alternative light-duty vehicle technologies for global greenhouse gas emissions and primary energy demands," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 3012-3024, May.
    4. Bastien Girod & Detlef Vuuren & Maria Grahn & Alban Kitous & Son Kim & Page Kyle, 2013. "Climate impact of transportation A model comparison," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 595-608, June.
    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. Xingping Zhang & Rao Rao & Jian Xie & Yanni Liang, 2014. "The Current Dilemma and Future Path of China’s Electric Vehicles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-27, March.

    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. Zhang, Runsen & Fujimori, Shinichiro & Dai, Hancheng & Hanaoka, Tatsuya, 2018. "Contribution of the transport sector to climate change mitigation: Insights from a global passenger transport model coupled with a computable general equilibrium model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 76-88.
    2. Runsen Zhang & Tatsuya Hanaoka, 2022. "Cross-cutting scenarios and strategies for designing decarbonization pathways in the transport sector toward carbon neutrality," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Bosetti, Valentina & Longden, Thomas, 2013. "Light duty vehicle transportation and global climate policy: The importance of electric drive vehicles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 209-219.
    4. Takeshita, Takayuki, 2012. "Assessing the co-benefits of CO2 mitigation on air pollutants emissions from road vehicles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 225-237.
    5. Paladugula, Anantha Lakshmi & Kholod, Nazar & Chaturvedi, Vaibhav & Ghosh, Probal Pratap & Pal, Sarbojit & Clarke, Leon & Evans, Meredydd & Kyle, Page & Koti, Poonam Nagar & Parikh, Kirit & Qamar, Sha, 2018. "A multi-model assessment of energy and emissions for India's transportation sector through 2050," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 10-18.
    6. Pietzcker, Robert C. & Longden, Thomas & Chen, Wenying & Fu, Sha & Kriegler, Elmar & Kyle, Page & Luderer, Gunnar, 2014. "Long-term transport energy demand and climate policy: Alternative visions on transport decarbonization in energy-economy models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 95-108.
    7. Yan, Shiyu & De Bruin, Kelly & Dennehy, Emer & Curtis, John, 2020. "A freight transport demand, energy and emission model with technological choices," Papers WP669, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    8. Simone Speizer & Jay Fuhrman & Laura Aldrete Lopez & Mel George & Page Kyle & Seth Monteith & Haewon McJeon, 2024. "Integrated assessment modeling of a zero-emissions global transportation sector," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Cai, Yongxia & Woollacott, Jared & Beach, Robert H. & Rafelski, Lauren E. & Ramig, Christopher & Shelby, Michael, 2023. "Insights from adding transportation sector detail into an economy-wide model: The case of the ADAGE CGE model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    10. Yan, Shiyu & de Bruin, Kelly & Dennehy, Emer & Curtis, John, 2021. "Climate policies for freight transport: Energy and emission projections through 2050," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 11-23.
    11. Kyle, Page & Kim, Son H., 2011. "Long-term implications of alternative light-duty vehicle technologies for global greenhouse gas emissions and primary energy demands," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 3012-3024, May.
    12. Takayuki Takeshita, 2011. "Global Scenarios of Air Pollutant Emissions from Road Transport through to 2050," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-31, July.
    13. Yin, Xiang & Chen, Wenying & Eom, Jiyong & Clarke, Leon E. & Kim, Son H. & Patel, Pralit L. & Yu, Sha & Kyle, G. Page, 2015. "China's transportation energy consumption and CO2 emissions from a global perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 233-248.
    14. Schafer, Andreas, 2012. "Introducing behavioral change in transportation into energy/economy/environment models," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6234, The World Bank.
    15. Bastien Girod & Detlef Vuuren & Maria Grahn & Alban Kitous & Son Kim & Page Kyle, 2013. "Climate impact of transportation A model comparison," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 595-608, June.
    16. Pan, Xunzhang & Wang, Hailin & Wang, Lining & Chen, Wenying, 2018. "Decarbonization of China's transportation sector: In light of national mitigation toward the Paris Agreement goals," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 853-864.
    17. Ou, Yang & Kittner, Noah & Babaee, Samaneh & Smith, Steven J. & Nolte, Christopher G. & Loughlin, Daniel H., 2021. "Evaluating long-term emission impacts of large-scale electric vehicle deployment in the US using a human-Earth systems model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    18. Sudhakar Yedla, 2007. "Choosing between Global and Local Emission Control Strategies in Urban Transport Sector, Which way to go?," Development Economics Working Papers 22352, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    19. David Bryngelsson & Fredrik Hedenus & Daniel J. A. Johansson & Christian Azar & Stefan Wirsenius, 2017. "How Do Dietary Choices Influence the Energy-System Cost of Stabilizing the Climate?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-13, February.
    20. Blanco, Herib & Gómez Vilchez, Jonatan J. & Nijs, Wouter & Thiel, Christian & Faaij, André, 2019. "Soft-linking of a behavioral model for transport with energy system cost optimization applied to hydrogen in EU," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).

    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:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:5:p:1845-1862:d:25379. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.