This article presents agent-based modeling (ABM) as a novel approach for consequential life cycle assessment (C-LCA) of large scale policies, more specifically mobility-related policies. The approach is validated at the Luxembourgish level (as a first case study). The agent-based model simulates the car market (sales, use, and dismantling) of the population of users in the period 2013-2020, following the implementation of different mobility policies and available electric vehicles. The resulting changes in the car fleet composition as well as the hourly uses of the vehicles are then used to derive consistent LCA results, representing the consequences of the policies. Policies will have significant environmental consequences: when using ReCiPe2008, we observe a decrease of global warming, fossil depletion, acidification, ozone depletion, and photochemical ozone formation and an increase of metal depletion, ionizing radiations, marine eutrophication, and particulate matter formation. The study clearly shows that the extrapolation of LCA results for the circulating fleet at national scale following the introduction of the policies from the LCAs of single vehicles by simple up-scaling (using hypothetical deployment scenarios) would be flawed. The inventory has to be directly conducted at full scale and to this aim, ABM is indeed a promising approach, as it allows identifying and quantifying emerging effects while modeling the Life Cycle Inventory of vehicles at microscale through the concept of agents.

Electric mobility is often presented as a way to tackle the environmental issues associated with individual mobility, provided that electric vehicles are adopted by drivers on a mass scale. In this paper, we propose an agent-based model (ABM) aiming at modelling the deployment of these vehicles. ABM is particularly indicated when modelling complex systems whose final results are the combination of the interactions between individuals and their environment and when the agents have partial information to take their decisions. We selected Luxembourg and its French neighbouring region, Lorraine, as the case study for our model, to test Luxembourg's ambitious objective of deploying 40,000 electric vehicles by the year 2020. Model results show that the number of battery powered electric vehicles in Luxembourg (including vehicles from Lorraine's commuters crossing the border every day) could be between 2000 and 21,000. A high number of commercial vehicles in Luxembourg, as well as an unlikely deployment in the neighbouring Belgium and Germany would therefore be required to meet the deployment objective. However, the deployment of plug-in hybrid vehicles could reach 60,000 cars by the end of 2020. To achieve this number, the deployment of charging points seems to be the more effective policy, along with actions aiming at increasing public awareness and acceptance of electric vehicles. The interest in using the ABM also lies in the identification of the main individuals' characteristics affecting the deployment of electric vehicles (household size, commuting distances, etc.), which further support the setting of public policies. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies of electric mobility are often limited to the comparison of few electric vehicles (EVs) wi th their internal combustion engine (ICE) counterparts, suffering fro m an unclear definition of the functional unit. This bias has potentially s ignificant repercussion on the assessment of the environmental consequences of mobility policies and objectives fixed by European states. This paper aim s at proposing a multiagent model in order to assess the vehicle market o f Luxembourg and how the ICE vehicles are going to be replaced by EVs. T his model can thus help us to define the functional unit associated with el ectric mobility, whether it is applied to individual, company or shared cars an d feed consequential LCA of policy and implementation strategies.

Cette these, realisee dans le cadre d'un contrat CIFRE entre l'entreprise Renault et l'Institut PPRIME (UPR CNRS 3346, ISAE-ENSMA-Universite de Poitiers), porte sur les analyses de cycles de vie des carburants et energies alternatives. Le secteur de la mobilite individuelle fait face a de nombreux defis : rechauffement climatique, pollution urbaine, epuisement des ressources, etc. Par consequent, differentes alternatives se presentent pour repondre a ces defis : agrocarburants, hydrogene, vehicule electrique, etc. L'AVC permet d'evaluer les impacts environnementaux d'un produit ou d'un systeme. La these porte sur la prise en compte des impacts locaux lies a la production et a la consommation des energies automobiles alternatives en retenant particulierement les carburants de reference que sont le diesel et l'essence mais aussi les agrocarburants de premiere generation et l'electricite. Elle traite en particulier des problematiques de pertinence de ces impacts, notamment en cherchant a etablie quels impacts retenir et comment les ameliorer (prise en compte de la differentiation entre milieu urbain et milieu rural et entre sources hautes et basses). La seconde partie de la these etudie l'impact de l'usage du vehicule, en s'interessant specialement aux polluants locaux emis selon la norme de depollution du vehicule et le cycle de roulage utilise. Le tout vise a obtenir des resultats d'AVC scientifiquement plus robustes et plus facilement interpretables pour une prise de decision fiable, valide dans la duree et coherente avec les grands enjeux strategiques de Renault. Les resultats montrent une empreinte environnementale complexe a analyser : alors que l'electricite renouvelable apporte de vrais gains vis-a-vis des carburants conventionnels, l'electricite fossile possede un bilan mitige selon l'impact regarde. Par ailleurs, les agrocarburants presentent un bilan globalement negatif vis-a-vis des carburants conventionnels. Enfin, la distinction urbain / rural permet de mettre en evidence les gains sur la sante associes au vehicule electrique.

Until recently, the automotive industry was solely relying on one energy resource: oil. However, because of several environmental, political and economical issues, new alternatives are now emerging, such as electric vehicles (EVs). The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of an EV are linked with the manufacturing of the car and the electricity production during the use phase. In this article, we study the GHG emissions linked with EVs using photovoltaic (PV) and wind electricity associated with a Renault EV. GHG emissions are compared with EVs using average electricity from various European countries and from conventional thermal vehicles. The results show that using wind electricity always allows decreasing GHG emissions while PV impact is dependent on the country studied. Nonetheless, when using PV electricity, GHG emissions are always lower than conventional thermal vehicles.

Because of its reliance to oil, the automotive indu stry is facing new environmental challenges. Therefore, alternative fuels are being developed: biofuels, synthetic fuels, electricity, hydrogen, etc. To assess their sustainability, life cycle assessment is probably the most appropriate tool. I n this article, we compare fossil fuels (gasoline and Diesel fuel) to electricity com ing from coal and rapeseed biodiesel. Various environmental impacts are compar ed using CML2001, ReCiPe2008 and USEtox indicators. Since USEtox cons iders the distinction between rural and urban atmospheric emissions, a ge ographical information system was used to assess the urban share of emissi ons during the production stage of the fuels. The eleven indicators have been aggregated to seven impacts, exhaustively showing the various environmental adva ntages / drawbacks of each pathway.

In order to provide more sustainable fuels and address the depletion of oil as a feedstock, the automotive industry must adapt to a growing market share of alternative fuels. The environmental impacts of the automotive industry to date would suggest that these alternatives will be more environmentally friendly than petroleum-based fuels. This is nonetheless an assumption that cannot be confirmed without a systematic life cycle assessment (LCA). This article explores the feasibility of USEtox to provide information needed for automotive-fuel LCA.

As new alternative automotive fuels are being developed, life cycle assessment (LCA) is being used to assess the sustainability of these new options. A fuel LCA is commonly referred as a “Well To Wheels” analysis and calculates the environmental impacts of producing the fuel (the “Well To Tank” stage) and using it to move a car (the “Tank To Wheels” stage, TTW). The TTW environmental impacts are the main topic of this article.