A review of fleet-based life-cycle approaches focusing on energy and environmental impacts of vehicles

Alternative vehicle propulsion technologies are being promoted to reduce energy consumption and environmental impacts in transportation. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is often used to assess and compare the environmental impacts of these technologies, but, in its traditional form, it lacks the ability to capture the transient effects as new vehicles displace older vehicles in the fleet. Fleet-based life-cycle (LC) approaches – which combine the LCA methodology with fleet models that describe the stocks and flows associated with a class of products over time – have been proposed to circumvent this issue. This article presents a critical review of the literature addressing fleet-based LC approaches by providing an overview of modeling approaches, its main applications, and an analysis of the key aspects underlying environmental and energy impacts of vehicle fleets (focusing on electrification pathways).

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