Vehicle Cycle Environmental Impacts Assessment of a China Passenger Car

In this paper, the vehicle cycle environment impacts of a mid-size passenger car in China is performed, with a special focus on the primary energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The vehicle cycle analysis results show that the energy consumption and GHG emissions of a passenger car in China are about 91.1 GJ and 11.5 ton per vehicle, respectively. And coal as the main process fuel in China is the key contributor to the high GHG emissions. The material production process is very energy-intensive, and vehicle assembly process is very emission-intensive. The energy consumption and GHG emissions of the remaining stages are small compared to the overall vehicle cycle impacts. There are three means to reduce vehicle cycle environmental impacts: automotive light weighting, adopt low energy-intensive and low emission-intensive materials in vehicle, and substitute environment friendly energy for coal as the main process fuel in China.