The life cycle assessment of passenger cars.

The life cycle assessment shows the climate compatibility of various passenger car drives. For this purpose, greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption were compared. Both upstream and downstream emissions from the production of the vehicle and the energy source were taken into account as well as direct emissions from driving. The analysis of 39 different combinations of propulsion technologies, fuels and vehicle segments shows that battery-electric passenger cars (BEVs) are the most climate friendly when using 100 % renewable energy sources in all vehicle segments. Alternative technologies such as hydrogen drives have similar low greenhouse gas emissions but have lower energy efficiency than BEVs. Downsizing, resource-efficient production and recycling help to further improve the life cycle balance of electric cars.