Environmental Benefits of New Energy Vehicles: Co2 Emissions of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

New energy vehicles (NEV) are considered vital to deal with environmental issues. NEVs use clean energy such as electricity and hydrogen as their fuel, allowing them to accomplish carbon-free emission during driving conditions. This paper analyses two major types of NEVs, electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles’ carbon footprint through their lifecycle, including manufacturing, usage and end-of-life recycling. The results shows that NEVs have a significant advantage over ICEVs with respect to environmental benefits which they can bring. Although NEVs have a higher CO2 emission in the manufacturing stage and the electricity largely comes from burning fossil fuels, the combined drawback is completely overshadowed by NEVs’ high energy utilization rate and their green drivetrain.