Effects of automated cars on CO2-equivalent emissions of European passenger car fleet: a life cycle perspective

Automated cars (thereafter AV) are supposed to be one of the relevant factors to shape the future of mobility. Understanding their vast array of potential effects on mobility systems is becoming increasingly important for their adoption. This paper investigates how AV will create impacts on the current and future passenger car fleet in Europe from a life cycle (LC) perspective. LC CO2-equivalent (CO2-eq) emissions of two different propulsion systems (internal combustion engine – ICE and battery electric – BE) are combined with LC CO2-eq emissions of a connected and automated subsystem to create the emission values for these specific AV. Total CO2-eq emissions of passenger car fleet in Europe are calculated under different scenarios (i.e., Baseline, Low saving, High saving, and No saving) according to various ranges of potential effects recognized via literature review. The results indicate that to achieve the European emission target, effective measures are necessary to assure that AV in the fleet can reach their potential of CO2-eq emission reduction.