Comparison of Global Warming Potential of alternate and conventional fuel four-wheeler vehicles in India through life cycle analysis

Due to global warming and its adverse effects, to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions from the transportation sector there is a strong push for the shift from conventional Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles to so-called clean energy source cars i.e. Battery Electric Vehicles. It can also be observed that there has been a significant penetration of Hybrid Electric Vehicles from many manufacturers in recent days. Though these BEVs and HEVs are claimed to reduce the GHG emissions one has to pay extra money to buy them over conventional ICEVs. So, there is a need to investigate the amount of reduction of GHG emissions and the worthiness of spending the extra money. In this study, we decided to estimate the life cycle GHG emissions of all the 157 vehicle models currently available in India and analyze whether BEVs and HEVs make a real impact in emission reduction. The life cycle GHG emissions include the emissions from the vehicle life cycle and fuel life cycle. The results obtained showed an interesting fact that GHG emissions by BEVs and HEVs are more than ICEVs with a life span travel distance of 80,000 km for all the vehicle-fuel categories. So, one can choose or deny buying an alternate fuel source vehicle depending on their lifetime travel distance.