Life Cycle Emissions and Cost Study of Light Duty Vehicles

The growth of vehicle sales and use world-wide requires the consumption of significant quantities of energy and materials. Advanced propulsion systems and electric drive vehicles have substantially different characteristics and impacts. For a comprehensive comparison of advanced and traditional light duty vehicles, a model is developed that integrates external costs, including emissions and time losses, with societal and consumer life cycle costs. Life cycle emissions and time losses are converted into costs for seven urban light duty vehicles. The results, which are based on vehicle technology characteristics and transportation impacts on environment, facilitate vehicle comparisons and support policy making in transportation. More sustainable urban transportation can be achieved in the short term by promoting policies that increase vehicle occupancy. In the intermediate term, more sustainable urban transportation can be achieved by increasing the share of hybrid vehicles in traffic. In the long term, more sustainable urban transportation can be achieved with the widespread use of electric vehicles. A sensitivity analysis of life cost results revealed that vehicle costs change significantly for different geographical areas depending on vehicle taxation, and the pricing of gasoline, electric power and pollution. Current practices in carbon and air quality pricing favor oil and coal based technologies. However, increasing the cost of electricity from coal and other fossil fuels would increase the variable cost for electric vehicles, and would favor the variable cost of hybrid vehicles.