Comparative life cycle assessment of different propulsion systems

The paper compares three cars with different propulsion systems: a vehicle with conventional combustion engine, an electric vehicle and a hybrid with the combination of combustion and electric engine, which is actually developed at the TU Munich. All propulsion systems are calculated for the same basic vehicle. Fundamental value of the comparison is the cumulated energy demand of the vehicles. For these life cycle assessment user profiles have been created regarding different mileages, using times and driving cycles. Refering to primary energy balance the electric vehicle compares unfavourably with the hybrid, while hybrid and conventional vehicle show almost the same results, depending on the user profile. By contrast the cumulated emissions of the electric vehicle are better than those of the hybrid, which causes less emissions than the combustion engine.