Research on application of electric vehicles in urban transportation systems for greenhouse gas reduction

While still in their fancy, electric vehicles have become a global sensation over the past decade. With the backing and high ambitions of many nations and private businesses, the number of electric vehicles sold worldwide boosted from only 0.1million in 2012 to 14 million in 2023, and still keeps an upward trend. The term "green" is frequently applied to electric vehicles, as they are believed to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lead the way to sustainable development. This article evaluates the potential of electric vehicles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under different scenarios for battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. In the most ideal scenario, battery electric vehicles would replace tiny electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles would replace all other light-duty vehicles, including cars and trucks, with an approximate 24.8% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The study also points out the lack of electric vehicles needed to be improved in the future, including costs, limited driving range, battery performance, accessibility of charging infrastructure and so on. Besides, the future tendency is proposed in relation to the technological advancement of electric vehicles.