Environmental and sustainability assessment of China’s transportation sector: The impact of Li-ion batteries on the transition to electric mobility

Abstract

Li-ion batteries are crucial to advance electric mobility and achieve carbon–neutral goals for social development. Their use coupled to renewable energy may play a huge role in accelerating the transition to electrification and cleaner global transport sectors. This study proposes an innovative ecological accounting framework, investigates the Li-ion battery industry chain based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Emergy Accounting (EmA), evaluates the sustainability of China’s transportation sector by simulating different scenarios of Li-ion batteries application. Results show that: (1)Terrestrial ecotoxicity is the most significant impact category for Li-ion battery industry chain, which calls for research efforts for better battery technologies; anode production causes the highest environmental pressure in the whole life cycle of Li-ion battery. (2) If all Chinese vehicles were replaced by electric vehicles, built and driven by renewable electricity, the demand for environmental support (emergy) would be reduced 50 %. (3)if individual mobility vehicles were increasingly replaced by mass transportation devices (buses, metro, trains) connected to the electric grid, the improvement would be even higher and significant. The research aims at promoting renewable energy use and technologies in the mobility system, to overcome the conventional dependence on fossil fuels use in combustion engine vehicles.