Reducing the environmental impacts of passenger cars: a comparison between electricity and biofuels

This study assessed the potential for decreasing the environmental impact of the European road transport sector by exploiting biofuels. After processing available data on the actual trends of biofuels utilisation in the sector, laboratory and on-road tests were conducted to compare the emissions from a C-segment Euro 6d-TEMP passenger car fed with commercial reference petrol and three experimental petrol blends containing components of renewable origin. Through the Life Cycle Assessment methodology based on measurement data, the environmental impacts of the four fuels were compared with an average C-segment battery electric vehicle. Concerning a fossil petrol car, all the fuels slightly reduced the impact on climate change, while the battery electric vehicle performed best. For the remaining environmental impact categories, the picture was less straightforward.