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Electric vehicles are considered the most promising alternative to internal combustion engine vehicles towards a cleaner transportation sector. Having null tailpipe emissions, electric vehicles contribute to fight localized pollution, which is particularly important in overpopulated urban areas. However, the electric vehicle implies greenhouse gas emissions related to its production and to the electricity generation needed to charge its batteries. This study focuses the analysis on how the electric vehicle emissions vary when compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, depending on the electric power plant fleet and the efficiency during the use-phase. For this to be done, the GWP associated to the electricity generation on the electric vehicle most selling European countries are calculated. Similarly, electric vehicle’s use-phase energy efficiency is calculated under a wide range of driving conditions using the Monte Carlo method. The results from energy production and energy use-phases are compared to the GWP calculated for internal combustion engine vehicles for six different driving cycles, to obtain the threshold values for which electric vehicles provide GWP reduction. These threshold values are then matched with the current electricity power plant fleet and the electric vehicle promotion incentives of the European countries considered in the study, showing that some countries (e.g. France or Norway) are better-suited for electric vehicles adoption, while countries like Spain or Portugal should boost electric vehicle promotion policies. Furthermore, other countries in Europe, such as Germany or the UK that are doing an effort on decarbonizing their power plant fleet, do not offer immediate greenhouse gas emission reductions for the uptake of electric vehicles instead of conventional cars.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Nowadays, the electric vehicle is one of the most promising alternatives for sustainable transportation. However, the battery, which is one of the most important components, is the main contributor to environmental impact and faces recycling issues. In order to reduce the carbon footprint and to minimize the overall recycling processes, this paper introduces the concept of re-use of electric vehicle batteries, analyzing some possible second-life applications.\ud Methods\ud First, the boundaries of the life cycle assessment of an electric vehicle are defined, considering the use of the battery in a second-life application. To perform the study, we present eight different scenarios for the second-life application. For each case, the energy, the efficiency, and the lifetime of the battery are calculated. Additionally, and based on the global warming potential, the environmental impact of the electric vehicle and its battery on a second-life application is determined for each scenario. Finally, an environmentally focused discussion on battery electrodes and research trends is presented.\ud Results and discussion\ud For the selected scenarios, the second life of the battery varies from 8 to 20 years depending on the application and the requirements. It has been observed that the batteries connected to the electricity grid for energy arbitrage storage have the highest impact per provided kilowatt hour. On the contrary, the environmental benefit comes from applications working with renewable energy sources and presenting a longer lifetime. We pointed out that a correlation between cycling conditions and degradation mechanisms of the electrode materials is compulsory for proper use of the electric vehicle battery in a second-life application.\ud Conclusions\ud To limit the environmental impact, batteries should be associated with renewable energy sources in stationary applications. However, it is more profitable to re-use Li-ion batteries than to use new lead-acid batteries. Although many batteries applied for electric vehicles use graphite-based anodes, the latter may not be the most suitable for the second-life application. A better understanding of Li-ion battery degradation during the second-life application is required for the different existing chemistries.Postprint (author's final draft

The market share in electric vehicles (EV) is increasing. This trend is likely to continue due to the increased interest in reducing CO emissions. The electric vehicle market evolution depends principally on the evolution of batteries capacity. As a consequence, automobile manufacturers focus their efforts on launching in the market EVs capable to compete with internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV) in both performance and economic aspects. Although EVs are suitable for the day-to-day needs of the typical urban driver, their range is still lower than ICEV, because batteries are not able to store and supply enough energy to the vehicle and provide the same autonomy as ICEV. EV use mostly Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries but this technology is reaching its theoretical limit (200-250 Wh/kg). Although the research to improve Li-ion batteries is very active, other researches began to investigate alternative electrochemical energy storage systems with higher energy density. At present, the most promising technology is the Lithium-Sulphur (Li-S) battery. This paper presents a review of the state of art of Li-Sulphur battery on EVs compared to Li-ion ones, considering technical, modelling, environmental and economic aspects with the aim of depicting the challenges this technology has to overcome to substitute Li-ion in the near future. This study shows how the main drawbacks for Li-S concern are durability, self-discharge and battery modelling. However, from an environmental and economic point of view, Li-S technology presents many advantages over Li-ion.

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