Electric vehicles may be seen as a strong environmental solution, but what if their batteries have a negative effect on the environment? Well, a team from Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology decided to put this to the test.
They compiled a detailed lifecycle inventory of a lithium-ion battery with a rough lifecycle analysis of battery electric vehicle mobility. The study, published in the ACS journal Environmental Science and Technology, found that the environmental burdens of mobility are dominated by the operation phase irrespective of whether a petrol-fuelled ICEV or an electricity fuelled battery electric vehicle is used.
According to the study, compared to an internal combustion engine vehicle, the use of a battery electric vehicle in transport results in lower environmental burdens although the PM10, NOx and SO2 emissions were higher.
It found that the share of the total environmental impact of e-mobility caused by the battery is 15 per cent. This comes from the extraction of lithium for the components of the battery (2.3 per cent) and the supply of the copper and aluminium for the production of the anode and the cathode as well as the required cables or the battery management system.
The electric vehicle studied was comparable to a Volkswagen Golf in size and had a range of 124 miles per charge with an assumed lifetime of 93,000miles. Environmental burdens were expressed over a timeframe of 100 years and it was determined that the lithium-ion battery plays a “minor role” regarding environmental burdens irrespective of the impact assessment method used.
