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M-1A-12 - Electric Technologies

Electric vehicle technologies encompass battery electric vehicles (BEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), each offering a pathway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on fossil fuels. BEVs operate solely on electricity stored in batteries, producing zero emissions during operation. HEVs combine an internal combustion engine with an electric motor to improve fuel efficiency, using regenerative braking to recharge the battery. PHEVs feature a larger battery than HEVs, allowing for extended electric-only driving and the option to recharge via an external power source. The adoption of these technologies contributes to reducing emissions in the transportation sector, especially when powered by renewable energy sources. However, challenges such as battery production impacts, charging infrastructure, and range limitations remain to be addressed for widespread implementation.

Electric technologies are outlined in section 10.3.2 of (IPCC AR6 WG3 2022)1.

Mitigation Objective

The primary goal is for a shift from ICE light-duty vehicles to electric light-duty vehicles.

Mitigation Potential

Potential

The AR5 report estimates the mitigation potential of Battery Electric Vehicles at 85%.

The literature suggests that current BEVs, if manufactured on low-carbon electricity as well as operated on low-carbon electricity would have footprints as low 22 gCO₂-eq pkm–1 for a compact-sized car (Ellingsen et al. 2014; Ellingsen et al. 2016). This value suggests a reduction potential of around 85% compared to similarly-sized fossil fuel vehicles (median values).

- (IPCC AR6 WG3 2022)1

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) emit no tailpipe emissions and have potentially very low fuel-production emissions (when using low-car bon electricity generation) (Kromer and Heywood, 2007). BEVs operate at a drive-train efficiency of around 80 % compared with about 20–35 % for conventional ICE LDVs.

- (IPCC AR5 WG3 2014)2

We chose to compare the prospective green energy scenario to the reference vehicles in today’s fossil envelope and found that the EVs offered 83–84% lower lifecycle impact...

- (Ellingsen, Singh, and Strømman 2016)3

Modelling

This mitigation method has been modelled with the Transition Element: T-1A1a-1 - Shift to electric vehicles.

Primary Reference

The primary reference for this mitigation measure is (IPCC AR6 WG3 2022)1.

Secondary References

The Size and Range Effect

This study (Ellingsen, Singh, and Strømman 2016)3 analysed how increasing battery size and driving range of BEVs affects their environmental impact over the full lifecycle. Four groups of car sizes (mini, medium, large and luxury) were analysed and lifecycle emissions for BEVs compared to those of ICE vehicles.

  1. IPCC AR6 WG3. 2022. Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Edited by Priyadarshi R. Shukla, Jim Skea, Raphael Slade, Alaa Al Khourdajie, Renée van Diemen, David McCollum, Minal Pathak, et al. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157926. ↩↩↩

  2. IPCC AR5 WG3. 2014. Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change: Working Group III Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Edited by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Ottmar Edenhofer. Cambridge University Press. ↩

  3. Ellingsen, Linda, Bhawna Singh, and Anders Strømman. 2016. “The Size and Range Effect: Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Electric Vehicles.” Environmental Research Letters 11 (May):054010. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/5/054010. ↩↩

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