Life cycle energy use and greenhouse gas emission of lightweight vehicle – a body-in-white design

A life cycle assessment (LCA) study is performed to compare the life cycle primary energy demand (PED) and global warming potential (GWP) of steel baseline automotive body-in-white (BIW) with three types of lightweight Scenarios. Scenario I, Scenario II, and Scenario III use advanced high strength steel (AHSS), aluminum alloy (Al alloy), and carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), respectively. China Automotive Life Cycle Database (CALCD), onsite data of Chinese automotive industry in 2015–2017 and process models are used for inventory analysis in this study.The results indicate, among the different lightweight Scenarios for the BIW, the Scenario II provides the lowest PED and GWP during a lifetime travelling distance of 200,000 km. Scenario I shows the best break-even distance. Scenario III presents lower PED and GWP relative to the base case; however, it does not reach a breakeven for GWP within the lifespan of 200,000 km.Sensitivity analysis results depict that a combination of longer lifetime distance, larger fuel consumption and smaller substitution ratio is beneficial for lightweight BIW Scenarios, especially for Scenario III, to achieve the largest PED and GWP reduction compared to the baseline in the full life cycle