Battery electric vehicles show the lowest carbon footprints among passenger cars across 1.5-3.0 °C energy decarbonisation pathways.

ABSTRACT: Passenger car carbon footprints are highly sensitive to future energy systems, a factor often overlooked in life cycle assessment. We use a time-dependent prospective life cycle assessment to enhance carbon footprints under four 1.5-3.0 °C decarbonisation pathways for electricity, fuel, and hydrogen from an energy-based integrated assessment model. Across 5000 comparative cases, battery electric vehicles consistently have the lowest carbon footprints compared to hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fuel-cell vehicles. For example, battery electric vehicles show an average 32 to 47% lower footprint than hybrid combustion in 3.0 °C and 1.5 °C climate-compatible futures, respectively. This is driven by greater projected decarbonisation of electricity compared to fossil-dominated fuels and hydrogen. Ba

SUBMITTER: Simaitis J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12176635 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature