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In the last decade, with the increased concerns about the global environment, attempts have been made to promote the replacement of fossil fuels with sustainable sources. For transport, which accounts for around a quarter of total greenhouse gas emissions, meeting climate neutrality goals will require replacing existing fleets with electric or hydrogen-propelled vehicles. However, the lack of adequate decision support approach makes the introduction of new propulsion technologies in the transportation sector a complex strategic decision problem where distorted non-optimal decisions may easily result in long-term negative effects on the performance of logistic operators. This research addresses the problem of transport fleet renewal by proposing a multi-criteria decision-making approach and takes into account the multiple propulsion technologies currently available and the objectives of the EU Green Deal, as well as the inherent scenario uncertainty. The proposed approach, based on the TOPSIS model, involves a novel decision framework referred to as a generalized life cycle evaluation of the environmental and cost objectives, which is necessary when comparing green and traditional propulsion systems in a long-term perspective to avoid distorted decisions. Since the objective of the study is to provide a practical methodology to support strategic decisions, the framework proposed has been validated against a practical case referred to the strategic fleet renewal decision process. The results obtained demonstrate how the decision maker’s perception of the technological evolution of the propulsion technologies influences the decision process, thus leading to different optimal choices.

In this work, the results of carbon footprint evaluation of both an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) and battery electric vehicle (BEV), considering the Ecuador energy scene, is presented. For this purpose, Well-to-Wheel analysis was used, firstly determining the electric energy generation matrix of the country. First, the KIA Soul vehicle and KIA Soul EV (electric version) were considered study cases. Then, manufacturers' technical characteristics were used to determine each vehicular technology's carbon footprint and considerations such as util life-route driving, fuel path, util life-time and replacement of batteries, and emissions due to chassis and body vehicle. Obtained results allowed for determining that greenhouse gas emissions in Ecuador due to the ICEV is 236.16 gCO2/km. On the other hand, the BEV emitted 63.14 gCO2/km, significantly barely 27%of emissions. These results represent a positive impact on reducing ambient contamination indices and reinforce the necessity for accelerating the change in the country's energy matrix toward a cleaner and more sustainable energy generation

Abstract The option of decarbonizing urban freight transport using battery electric vehicle (BEV) seems promising. However, there is currently a strong debate whether fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) might be the better solution. The question arises as to how a fleet of FCEV influences the operating cost, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and primary energy demand in comparison to BEVs and to Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle (ICEV). To investigate this, we simulate the urban food retailing as a representative share of urban freight transport using a multi-agent transport simulation software. Synthetic routes as well as fleet size and composition are determined by solving a vehicle routing problem. We compute the operating costs using a total cost of ownership analysis and the use phase emissions as well as primary energy demand using the well to wheel approach. While a change to BEV results in 17–23% higher costs compared to ICEV, using FCEVs leads to 22–57% higher costs. Assuming today’s electricity mix, we show a GHG emission reduction of 25% compared to the ICEV base case when using BEV. Current hydrogen production leads to a GHG reduction of 33% when using FCEV which however cannot be scaled to larger fleets. Using current electricity in electrolysis will increase GHG emission by 60% compared to the base case. Assuming 100% renewable electricity for charging and hydrogen production, the reduction from FCEVs rises to 73% and from BEV to 92%. The primary energy requirement for BEV is in all cases lower and for higher compared to the base case. We conclude that while FCEV have a slightly higher GHG savings potential with current hydrogen, BEV are the favored technology for urban freight transport from an economic and ecological point of view, considering the increasing shares of renewable energies in the grid mix.

Environmental issues are an increasingly important aspect of management in the transport sector; new methods have been developed for assessment of the environment in the transport sector using the life cycle approach. The paper presents the application of Well to Wheel (WTW) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the transport sector. The WTW method focuses on energy analysis and greenhouse gas emissions during the life cycle of fuels. WTW is used to support decision-making on the environmental aspects of transport, particularly with regard to fuel life cycle management, but this method omits important stages in the life cycle, particularly the ones regarding important circular economy guidelines such as reduction of natural resource consumption, impact on human health, etc. The LCA method provides a much broader approach to environmental assessment than WTW. LCA takes into consideration environmental impact in the whole life cycle of the vehicle, from the stage of production, through the period of exploitation, and finally its disposal.

Interests in evaluating lifecycle energy use in urban transport have been growing as a research topic. Various studies have evaluated the relationship between the intracity transport energy use and population density and commonly identified its negative correlation. However, a diachronic transition in an individual city has yet to be fully analyzed. As such, this study employed transport energy intensity widely used for evaluating transport energy efficiency and obtained the transport energy intensity for each transportation means including walk, bicycle, automobile (conventional vehicles, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles), bus and electric train by considering the lifecycle energy consumption. Then, the intracity lifecycle transport energy intensity of 38 cities in Japan in 1987–2015 was computed, assuming that the cause of diachronic transition of intracity transport energy efficiency is the modal shifting and electricity mix change. As a result, the greater level of population density was associated with the lower intracity transport energy intensity in Japanese cities. The negative slope of its regression line increased over time since the intracity lifecycle transport energy intensity in cities with low population density continuously increased without any significant change of population density. Finally, this study discussed the strategic implications particularly in regional areas to improve the intracity lifecycle transport energy efficiency.