Open AccessElectric cars: Are they solution to reduce CO2 emission?
Author(s) -
T. Petrović,
Radmilo Pešić,
Miloš Petrović,
M Radomir Mijailovic
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
thermal science/thermal science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.339
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 2334-7163
pISSN - 0354-9836
DOI - 10.2298/tsci191218103p
Subject(s) - fossil fuel , gasoline , electricity , automotive engineering , green vehicle , diesel fuel , electric cars , electric vehicle , miles per gallon gasoline equivalent , electricity generation , environmental science , engineering , fuel efficiency , waste management , power (physics) , electrical engineering , physics , quantum mechanics
Reducing CO2 emission is one of the major environmental challenges for transportation. One way to solve this problem is to replace old cars that use fossil fuels (petrol, diesel) with new electric cars. In this paper, the existing model for calculating well-to-wheels CO2 emission during the life cycle of the car (fossil fuel car and electric car) is upgraded. The developed model is used for comparing optimal lifetime and optimal car?s kilometers driven during a lifetime in the replacement process of a fossil fuel car with a new electric car. We find that reducing CO2 emission depends on the type of fossil fuel, and the weight of fossil fuel cars and electric cars. Changing petrol fossil fuel cars with lower weight electric cars have the greatest potential for reducing CO2 emission. However, the introduction of electric cars does not achieve a significant reduction of CO2 emission in countries where electricity is primarily produced in thermal power plants, i. e. in countries with a high emission factor of electricity production.