On sustainability of battery electric vehicles

Abstract

Electric mobility is often seen as a cornerstone for the sustainable mobility in the future. To meet SDG goals, many governments are providing different supporting measures, especially for battery electric cars – frequently also called zero-emission vehicles –, which should accelerate the transition towards clean and sustainable mobility. The major goal of this paper is to discuss economic, environmental and social issues related to the increasing use of electric vehicles. Economic assessment of e-mobility is conducted using total cost of ownership method. Moreover, sensitivity analysis is done considering different vehicle segments, as well as different electricity and hydrogen prices. The environmental assessment includes well-to wheel emissions, as well as emissions related to vehicle manufacturing. In addition, possible negative environmental and social impacts related to the mining of raw materials, such as lithium and cobalt, are discussed. It can be noticed that there is a correlation between GDP and electric vehicles use and deployment of charging infrastructure. Currently, in the EU e-mobility is mostly used in a few countries with a high GDP per capita, such as Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, Denmark and Germany. In addition, about 50% of the whole charging infrastructure in the EU is concentrated on less than 10% of the whole EU surface area. Due to the current economic crisis, this imbalance between countries can be expected also in the future. Electric vehicles can eliminate tailpipe emissions and reduce dependence on fossil fuels, but at the same time intensive deployment of e-mobility can create new environmental and social problems, at least in the short term. To avoid negative impacts of e-mobility and to assure future sustainable development of the transport sector it is very important to find ways to reduce the need for the mining of raw materials used in the electric vehicles, as well as to develop appropriate recycling methods. There is an urgent need to create new policy frameworks, which should ensure more sustainable- and ethical battery production and recycling.