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THERMAL SCIENCE
International Scientific Journal
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LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT AS A DECISION-SUPPORT TOOL FOR DETERMINING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS: A PASSENGER CAR USE-CASE
ABSTRACT
This study applies life cycle assessment to quantify and compare the environmental impacts of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and internal combustion engine vehicles operated under different national electricity mixes, using Slovenia and selected European countries as case studies. The analysis utilizes the Ecoinvent database and the Environmental Footprint 3.1 (EF 3.1) impact assessment method, implemented in SimaPro, with a functional unit of 100 km of passenger car transport. Results show that BEV life cycle GHG emissions are highly sensitive to national grid carbon intensity, with coal-intensive mixes yielding BEV climate change impacts that are close to or higher than those of internal combustion engine vehicles. In contrast, low‑carbon, renewable‑based mixes substantially improve BEV performance in the climate change category. The highest life cycle GHG emissions of BEV per 100 km of transport among the analyzed countries were in the case of Serbia, which mainly produces electricity from thermal power plants (20.9 kg CO2-eq), compared to Norway with 0.44 kg CO2-eq. Increasing the share of PV in Slovenia's electricity mix reduces the life cycle climate impacts of BEV use but slightly increases mineral and metal resource use, indicating a burden-shifting trade-off between decarbonization and material demand. The findings demonstrate that country-specific electricity mixes, when assessing environmental performance, need to be taken into account. Support policies that combine grid decarbonization, smart charging aligned with low-carbon hours, and improved battery and PV material circularity should be adopted to maximize the sustainability benefits of BEVs.
KEYWORDS
life cycle assessment, transportation, electricity, battery electric vehicles, environmental impacts, renewable energy sources, energy transition, decarbonization
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2025-09-08
PAPER REVISED: 2026-01-07
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2026-01-22
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2026-02-08
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI250908006T
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
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© 2026 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence