A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Carbon Emissions for Battery Electric Vehicle Types

While battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are pivotal for transport decarbonization, existing life cycle assessments (LCAs) often confound vehicle design effects with inter-brand manufacturing variations. In this study, a comparative cradle-to-grave LCA was conducted for three distinct BEV segments—a sedan, an SUV, and an MPV, produced by a single manufacturer on a shared platform. Leveraging detailed bills of materials, plant-level energy data, and region-specific emission factors for a functional unit of 150,000 km, we quantify greenhouse gas emissions across the full life cycle. Results show the total emissions scale with vehicle size from 25 to 31 t CO2-eq. However, the MPV exhibits the highest functional carbon efficiency, with the lowest emissions per unit of interior volume. Material production and operational electricity use dominate the emission profile, with end-of-life metal recycling providing a 15–20% mitigation credit. Scenario modeling reveals that grid decarbonization can slash life cycle emissions by around 30%, while advanced battery recycling offers a further 15–18% reduction. These findings highlight that the climate benefits of BEVs are closely linked to progress in power system decarbonization, and provide references for future optimization of low-carbon vehicle production and reuse.