Comparative life cycle assessment of heavy-duty drivetrains: A Norwegian study case

This study investigates the life cycle environmental impacts of three reference heavy-duty trucks (i.e. a conventional diesel truck, a battery electric truck, and a fuel cell electric truck) considering the type of energy used, the energy sources and their production pathways. The environmental impacts are studied from a life cycle perspective, encompassing the entire value chains while employing the well-to-wheel approach for the propelling energies. Using publicly available data, the adopted approach suppresses the barriers of lack of industry-related data and amplify the accuracy of heavy-road transport emissions quantification. Results exhibit that the full electric truck (BET) can cut up to 68% of GHG (i.e. about 0.621 kg CO2-eq per km) while the hydrogen fuel cell electric truck may induce a reduction of up to 48% of GHG (i.e. similar to 0.430 kg CO2-eq per km) emitted by a Euro VI truck of same category under same operating conditions.

Automated summary

This study compares the life cycle environmental impacts of three reference heavy-duty trucks, showing that battery electric trucks and hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional diesel trucks.