Life Cycle Assessment Of BYD E6 Electric Vehicle

With the rapid increase of Chinese car ownership, automobile industry brought both advantages and disadvantages to human beings and the environment, and the shortcomings of automobile industry became a big challenge for China to build the resource-saving and environmentally-friendly society. Thus, China have been trying its best to develop energy-efficient and environmental new energy vehicle, especially the electric vehicle. Although electric vehicle reduced the consumption of petroleum during its use phase, and realized "zero release’", it was just work for the use phase, and its influence to the environment hadn’t been analyzed on the aspect of product lifetime cycle. This paper applied the theory of life cycle assessment, and analyzed the life cycle of electric vehicle with the method of modeling analysis by the help of the life cycle assessment tools.This paper summarized the research on electric vehicle’s life cycle assessment both in China and abroad, promoted its idea on the research, and introduced the theory of life cycle assessment and Gabi software. Through the collection of data and inventory analysis, the life cycle assessment model of BYD E6 electric vehicle from raw material acquisition, manufacture, transportation, use and recycling was established in Gabi software. This paper evaluates the environmental emission and resource consumption during the whole life cycle of BYD E6 electric vehicle using life cycle assessment method CML 2001. It analyzed the impact in the whole life cycle of the electric vehicle to the resource and environment by comparing the utilization in different regions of China. It also conducted a sensitivity analysis on the energy consumption during the manufacturing process and during the utilization stage, and the recovery rate of the raw material in the whole life cycle of electric vehicle. Results showed that the order of the environmental impact index in the whole life cycle of the electric vehicle is Acidification Potential (AP)> Global Warming Potential (GWP)> Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP)> Eutrophication Potential (EP)> Ozone Layer Depletion Potential (ODP), and the impact to the environment mainly occurred in the utilization stage, then in the acquisition of raw materials, followed by the manufacturing stage. For the environmental impact in different power grid regions of China during the whole life cycle, the order is the East China Power Grid, the Northeast Power Grid, the Northwest Power Grid, the North China Power Grid, the Southern Power Grid, and the Central China Power Grid, arranged from the highest to the lowest. According to the results of the sensitivity analysis, the sensitivity of the energy consumption in the utilization stage in the whole life cycle of the electric vehicle is greater than in manufacturing process and the sensitivity of the recovery rate of the copper to the consumption of the mineral resources in life cycle process is much greater than the recovery rate of the steel and the aluminum.The electric vehicle’s life cycle assessment modeling and research achievements of BYD E6 established in this paper could provide data for the automobile manufacturers of electric vehicle, and promote the sustainable development of enterprises. Besides, it could provide theory support and decision reference for the government to make relevant policies on new energy vehicle.