Assessment of the environmental impacts of electric vehicle concepts

Under the impression of current discussions on depleting resources and environmental questions, the transportation sector is aware of its responsibility and pushes the development of alternative power train concepts. Especially electric vehicle concepts are investigated, since they decrease the dependency from oil based fuels and reduce local noise and emissions during the vehicle operation. By using renewable energies (e.g. wind power), e-mobility can contribute to a significant reduction of the climate balance of transportation. However, there is only little known about the life cycle impacts of e-mobility and respective vehicle components. Based on the method of life cycle assessment (LCA), this paper gives a first quantification on the environmental profile and relevant indicators of e-mobility.