How to calculate the environmental impact of zero-emission vehicles – the first joint guidelines
Europe's first harmonized guidelines for calculating the environmental impact of zero-emission vehicles have now been issued. They are intended to increase transparency and comparability, and are seen as an important step in promoting sustainability in the industry.
It will enable a fairer comparison of the environmental and social impacts of different vehicles, and hopefully also accelerate the development of more sustainable products, and optimize mobility solutions
, says Julia Lindholm, life-cycle assessment expert at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.
The TranSensus LCA collaborative project, in which IVL is participating, has developed Europe's first harmonized method for life-cycle assessment (LCA) of zero-emission vehicles. There were previously no standardized methods in this sector, which led to inconsistencies and limited the comparability of results and environmental impacts.
The project, funded through the EU's Horizon Europe framework programme, involves more than 40 organizations from research and industry. Participants include major industrial partners such as Volvo Cars, Scania, BMW and Renault, as well as several universities and research institutes. It has been coordinated by Fraunhofer from Germany.
The work has resulted in guidelines and a common LCA methodology for calculating different technologies and mobility solutions. IVL has led one of the work packages and tested the methodology on heavy vehicles.
The new LCA consolidated guidelines are available now for download and use from the project website External link.
Several articles have been published as part of the project; here are the most recent:
For more information, contact:
Julia Lindholm, julia.lindholm@ivl.se, tel. +46 (0)10-788 65 58