EVs widen life-cycle emissions gap over combustion cars, new study finds

Yahoo

10-07-2025

An increase in sustainable energy in Europe is making battery-electric vehicles substantially cleaner over their life cycles compared with combustion-engine cars, according to a new report from the International Council on Clean Transportation.
New BEVs will produce 73 percent fewer CO2 emissions than gasoline-powered cars, the ICCT said in a report July 9. That figure is 24 percent better than a 2021 estimate from the group.
In addition to taking advantage of renewable energy for charging and production, BEVs have also become more efficient, Marta Negri, a researcher at the ICCT, said.
'Battery electric cars in Europe are getting cleaner faster than we expected and outperform all other technologies, including hybrids and plug-in hybrids,' Negri said in a release.
In contrast, combustion-engine-based cars, including full hybrids and plug-in hybrids, have been getting only marginally cleaner in recent years, the group said. Hybrids have life-cycle emissions that are 20 percent lower than gasoline models, while PHEV emissions are 30 percent lower.
'When running on the EU average fuel and electricity mix, only BEVs offer a large-scale reduction in life-cycle GHG emissions,' the report said, referring to greenhouse-gas emissions.
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The ICCT study considered sales-weighted characteristics of compact cars sold in the EU in 2023 and assumes a life cycle of 20 years.
Renewable energy such as solar and wind is expected to make up 56 percent of Europe's mix, an 18-percentage-point gain from 2020, and could be 86 percent by 2045, the ICCT said, citing figures from the European Union.
Life-cycle assessment is a way to measure the carbon footprint of a car, from raw materials extraction, component manufacturing, production, energy consumption (including how the energy is produced) and end of life disposal or recycling.
Proponents say it is more accurate than current emissions standards, which focus on tailpipe emissions, while critics say life-cycle data can be selectively manipulated.
Earlier life-cycle assessment studies 'have repeatedly demonstrated that battery-electric vehicles eliminate tailpipe GHG emissions and represent the most promising pathway for rapidly reducing life-cycle emissions,' the ICCT said, while acknowledging that 'given varying scopes and inconsistent methodological choices, individual LCA studies can yield widely differing and sometimes contradictory results.'
Critics of EVs, for example, say that emissions from battery production are often so high that they cannot be offset by zero tailpipe emissions. The ICCT, in its report, acknowledged this claim but said that this 'emission debt' can be offset after 17,000 km of driving.
The European Commission and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) are currently working on harmonizing life-cycle assessment measurements. Automakers will be able to voluntarily report their cars' life-cycle emissions starting next year using the commission's methodology.
A gasoline car has life-cycle emissions of 235 grams of CO2 per km based on the average European power grid (assuming current mix of renewable and nonrenewable energy), while an EV's emissions are 63 g/km, the ICCT said (see chart, above). Plug-in hybrid emissions are 163 g/km, while full hybrids are 188 g/km.
The report argues that electric cars' life-cycle emissions are often overstated because they are based on a static electricity grid mix, rather than assuming that the percentage of renewable energy will continue to increase.
In addition, a shorter life-cycle assumption (less than 20 years) also tends to disadvantage EVs, as does a discrepancy between as-tested and real-world usage — for example, in-car monitoring has found that PHEV emissions are up to 3.5 times higher than tested, because owners do not regularly charge the batteries.
If these factors are not considered, the ICCT said, life-cycle emissions of BEVs can be up to 64 percent higher. 'Under such conditions, BEVs appear to have emissions levels comparable to PHEVs,' the report said.
Other findings of the study:
Production and recycling emissions were roughly equivalent across fuel types, ranging from 6.5 metric tons for BEVs to 7.9 tons for PHEVs (because of their complexity).
Battery production had emissions of 3.9 tons of CO2 for BEVs and 1.0 ton for PHEVs.
Maintenance: BEVs had emissions of 4 g/km (largely because they need fewer consumable items such as spark plugs or belts), while diesel maintenance was 7 g/km (due in part to the need for urea in exhaust treatment) and gasoline cars had maintenance emissions of 6 g/km.
Fuel-cell EVs have the potential to reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions by 79 percent, but only if they use hydrogen that is processed using renewable electricity.