Study of the ecological impact of production, operation and disposal of various types of cars

The life cycle of a car includes three basic phases: production, operation and end-of-life. All these phases can potentially produce emissions that have a direct impact on the environment. However, different types of cars may produce different amounts of emissions during the life cycle phases, depending not only on the type of propulsion but also on local factors such as the emission factor of the energy mix. The results of the research showed that the potential environmental benefit of lower GHG emissions of battery electric vehicles depends primarily on the emission factor of the energy mix. In countries such as Poland, where the majority of electricity produced is generated by burning coal and lignite, the life cycle environmental performance of battery cars will be higher than that of combustion cars. Conversely, in countries with a favourable energy mix, such as Sweden, the potential to reduce transport emissions by replacing the existing car fleet with electric cars is significant. Furthermore, four reference vehicles are proposed for which life cycle GHG emissions are calculated using the proposed calculation method using local emission factors