Life Cycle Assessment of Battery Electric and Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles in the Context of São Paulo

The consequences and the damages of human action on the environment is one of the main topics of interest of the last decades, and will continue to be in the foreseeable future. Among the numerous impacts, the high levels of Greenhouse Gases emissions (GHG) caused by humanity have received significant attention, especially due to its contribution to Global Warming. There are various emitting sources Greenhouse Gases that have received significant interest in the last decades, with multiple efforts towards reducing human impact on the environment. One of such sources are light duty vehicles, globally the main mean of individual transportation, currently facing an ever-growing transition movement, from internal combustion engine vehicles towards electric vehicles. The study and research of the environmental impact of both powertrain technologies has been a significant topic of interest in literature in the past decade. However, despite a significant number of published studies, there is still a significant lack of understanding of the real impact of electric vehicles. Mainly, aspects such as automotive battery production and recycling, the influence of driving patterns and battery capacity fade are far from having a consensus among literature sources. In Brazil, the gap is even larger, as currently there is not a sufficient amount of studies that cover the topic on a satisfactory level. The present thesis aims to contribute towards a deeper level of understanding of the environmental impact of electric vehicles versus internal combustion engine vehicles, assessing if the former is in fact the best option, considering the context of São Paulo, to substitute the latter, and, as a consequence, reduce the human impact on the environment. To do so, an introduction and contextualization of the problem is presented, followed by a review of the main studies in literature. Next, a Life Cycle Assessment of an electric vehicle and an internal combustion engine vehicle is performed, using the GREET database and software, so that the GHG emissions are evaluated on a cradle-to-grave basis. The scope of the study adopts as possible fuels for the ICEV both gasoline and sugarcane ethanol. For the EV, four scenarios of electricity generation mix are evaluated: Brazil, Europe, Italy, and 100% Natural Gas. Furthermore, other parameters often ignored are incorporated in the analysis, such as the driving cycle, the driving pattern, and automotive battery capacity fade. Reduction of GHG emissions by the use of EVs in the Brazilian scenario was observed, ranging from 7.8% to 48.9% in respect to ethanol, shown to be beneficial as well, and from 51.3% to 76.0% in respect to gasoline, which behaved as the worst option among the three.