Study Finds That Electrics and Hybrids Have a Higher CO2 Footprint In Production Than Do Gas Cars

By Aaron Turpen, Wed, June 15, 2011

In brief: A new study from Ricardo and the UK's Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership concludes that hybrids and electrics have a higher carbon footprint than do conventional vehicles - at least in production.

The word

The new study from Ricardo concludes that while the carbon footprint of hybrids and electrics is higher in production, it is lower overall when you account for the life of the vehicle. The report was released on June 9 at the LowCVP Annual Conference 2011.

The study's focus was on the lifecycle of vehicles in regards to their carbon footprints. It found that many of the CO₂ savings that low-carbon vehicles like EVs have are lost in the manufacturing and disposal cycles.

The study averaged the emissions of several types of vehicle over their lifetimes. The following summarizes findings:

Vehicle Whole Life Carbon Emissions Analysis from Ricardo / LowCVP 2011
Vehicle Type	Est. Lifecycle Emissions (CO_2e tonnes)	Proportion of emissions in production	Est. emissions in production (CO_2e tonnes)
Standard gasoline	24	23%	5.6
Hybrid	21	31%	6.5
Plug-in Hybrid	19	35%	6.7
Battery EV	19	46%	8.8

The estimates assume that current decarbonization efforts for electrical production for plug-ins has not changed.

And so ...

An interesting study with some interesting conclusions for those who include CO₂ in their climate analysis.

Photo credits: Stock

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