Life-cycle analysis of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles

Life-cycle analysis of a charging station for electric vehicles (EVs) was p erformed in the three phases, that is, production, transportation and insta llation of the charging equipment, which consists of charger, battery and s tand. We chose parking lots on expressways, commercial parking lots in citi es, municipal facilities, shopping centers, etc. throughout the country as the charging sites according to the EV charge program in Southern Californi a. Air-pollutant emissions during the transportation phase were calculated based on the emission factors of vehicles, running speed and the transport distance between one factory of the charging equipment and each site. The s hare of transporting the charging machines in total emissions of CO2, SOx a nd CO was less than 15% and the production phase was dominant. In case of N Ox, the share of transporting them was over 20%. The relation between gasol ine vehicle and gas station was applied to estimate the number of EVs using the charging stations through the country, and the contribution of the cha rging stations to life-cycle emissions of air pollutants from EV was presen ted. The share of infrastructure in total emissions of CO2 was 16% in our m odel case. Thus the development of the charging infrastructure almost did n ot change the advantage of EV compared to gasoline vehicle (GV) in terms of CO2, NOx, and CO emissions. But an EV emits more life-cycle SOx than gasol ine vehicles (GVs). (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.