Greenhouse Gas Emissions During the Usage Phase of Electric Vehicles in the United States, Now and in the Future

Authors

Zach Roza

Date of this Version

5-9-2022

Citation

Environmental Studies Undergraduate Student Thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2022

Comments

Copyright 2022, Zach Roza

Abstract

This is a systematic literature review and a discussion of future trends on the greenhouse gas emissions produced during the usage phase of electric vehicles in the United States now and in the future. The objective of this study was to determine the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced during the usage phase of an electric vehicle in the US currently and what it is expected to be in the year 2050. The reason that the study was conducted was due to the harmful effects caused by global warming and how large of a role the transportation industry in the United States has in this epidemic. A systematic literature review was conducted, and data collected from the literature review was plugged into an equation created to find the total amount of CO2 in grams produced when powering an electric vehicle for one year. It was found that the usage phase was responsible for the most greenhouse gas emissions during the lifecycle of an electric vehicle, a great way to lower the number of greenhouse gasses produced is to change the way that the electricity is made to power the vehicle and based on current projections there will be around 600,000 less grams of CO2 produced per year to power one electric vehicle by the year 2050.