Assessment Of Air Quality And Health Impacts Of Electric Vehicles In Typical Regions Of China

Electric vehicles?EVs?are capable of mitigating tailpipe emissions and improving energy efficiency in the operating stage compared with conventional internal combustion engine vehicles?ICEVs?.However,it is noted that the amount of energy consumption and pollutant emissions may be huge to produce electricity in upstream processes.EVs have been rapidly developed in China,posing increasing concerns about the energy and environmental impacts from fleet electrification.Therefore,it is essential to quantify the air quality and health impacts from China's EV penetration by applying life cycle assessment?LCA?and comprehensive air quality models.To understand real-world energy consumption and emissions of air pollutants,this study first collects on-road measurement data from typical EV technologies and characterizes the effects from complex operating conditions?e.g.,traffic pattern,air conditioning usage,and loading mass?.Then two EV deployment regions,the Jing-Jin-Ji?JJJ?and Yangtze River Delta?YRD?regions,are selected as case studies.The LCA approach and the Community Multi-scale Air Quality?CMAQ?model are employed to characterize emission and air quality changes under various electrification scenarios.Furthermore,in the YRD region,the human health impacts from EV deployment are estimated by referring to concentration-response functions,and the monetary values of electrification scenarios are estimated by considering health and climate benefits together.Compared to the baseline scenario,a policy-driven EV deployment scenario?EV1?is estimated to reduce average urban PM_2.5 concentrations by 0.6±1.4?g/m³ and 0.8±0.6?g/m³ in JJJ and YRD regions,respectively,during January 2030,when nitrate aerosol contributes a major part of the total PM_2.5 reductions.While in August,urban PM_2.5concentrations would be reduced by 0.3±0.3?g/m³ in JJJ and 0.4±0.5?g/m³ in YRD,and secondary organic aerosol would be considerably responsible for PM_2.5 concentration reductions.Overall,the air quality benefits in terms of PM_2.5 concentration changes are higher in YRD than in JJJ,which could be attributed to the cleaner generation mix and higher emission share from road transportation sector in YRD.In addition,greater PM_2.5concentration reductions are seen in the urban areas than the rural areas,because emission reductions of important precursors?e.g.,NO_X,VOCs?concentratedly occur in traffic-populated areas.Alongside with PM_2.5,EV deployment has significant benefits in reducing NO₂ concentrations,especially in the urban areas.For example,EV1 and EV2?an extreme electrification scenario?scenarios could mitigate the NO₂ concentrations by4.8±2.8?g/m³ and 6.4±3.6?g/m³,respectively,in the urban area of Shanghai in January.Since that the monthly average concentration?45?g/m³?is simulated to exceed the annual standard limit,electrification can effectively help to achieve the standard attainment of NO₂ concentrations.Compared to the baseline scenario,EV1 could lower 3936?3833⁴040?deaths in the YRD during 2030,which considers the benefits of reducing long-term PM_2.5 pollution exposure levels.Nearly two thirds of the reduced mortality are in association with lower stroke risks due to air quality changes caused by electrification.The monetary values of health benefits of EV1 scenario would be 41?40⁴2?and 1.8?0.6³.1?billion RMB yuan,respectively for the long-and short-term effects on mortality.Furthermore,the monetary values of climate change effects contributed by CO₂ emissions abatement would be 7billion RMB yuan.To sum up,with various marginal electricity generation mixes,EV1scenario can improve health benefits by 8²6%with respect of long-term effects on mortality that also takes account of climate change effects.