Eco-Efficiency of a Lithium-Ion Battery for Electric Vehicles: Influence of Manufacturing Country and Commodity Prices on GHG Emissions and Costs
Open accessAbstract
Lithium-ion battery packs inside electric vehicles represents a high share of the final price. Nevertheless, with technology advances and the growth of the market, the price of the battery is getting more competitive. The greenhouse gas emissions and the battery cost have been studied previously, but coherent boundaries between environmental and economic assessments are needed to assess the eco-efficiency of batteries. In this research, a detailed study is presented, providing an environmental and economic assessment of the manufacturing of one specific lithium-ion battery chemistry. The relevance of parameters is pointed out, including the manufacturing place, the production volume, the commodity prices, and the energy density. The inventory is obtained by dismantling commercial cells. The correlation between the battery cost and the commodity price is much lower than the correlation between the battery cost and the production volume. The developed life cycle assessment concludes that the electricity mix that is used to power the battery factory is a key parameter for the impact of the battery manufacturing on climate change. To improve the battery manufacturing eco-efficiency, a high production capacity and an electricity mix with low carbon intensity are suggested. Optimizing the process by reducing the electricity consumption during the manufacturing is also suggested, and combined with higher pack energy density, the impact on climate change of the pack manufacturing is as low as 39.5 kg CO2 eq/kWh.
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Battery production requires an enormous amount of energy and can lead to significant GHG emissions.
“the production of their batteries requires an enormous amount of energy and can lead to significant of GHG emissions [27].”
From A National and Regional Greenhouse Gas Breakeven Assessment of EVs across North America (2023) · cites this paper as [27]
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References 32 · Cited by 143
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Sanfélix, J. Multiregional Input-Output Life Cycle Analysis of a Battery Pack for Electric Vehicle Applications; VUB PRESS: Brussel, Belgium, 2015; ISBN 978-9-4619734-7-4.
- The Conference Board. International Comparisons of Hourly Compensation Costs in Manufacturing, 2016 -Summary Tables. Available online: https://www.conference-board.org/ilcprogram/index.cfm?id=38269 (accessed on 23 August 2018).
- Gaines, L.; Burnham, A.; Gaines, L.; Belharouak, I. Life-Cycle Analysis for Lithium-Ion Battery Production and Recycling Paper. Available online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265158823_Paper_ No_11-3891_Life-Cycle_Analysis_for_Lithium-Ion_Battery_Production_and_Recycling (accessed on 28 May 2018).
- Authors
- Philippot, M., Alvarez, G., Ayerbe, E., Van Mierlo, J., & Messagie, M.
- Affiliations
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE)
- CIDETEC, Po. Miramón 196, 20014 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
- Centre for Electrochemical Technologies (ES)
- ETEC Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), 1050 Brussel, Belgium
- Corresponding author
- Philippot, Maeva
- Venue
- Batteries
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2019-02-19
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 23
- ISSN
- 2313-0105 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2916807867
- Cited by
- 143
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 6.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Batteries (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- VUBIR (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Horizon 2020 (769935)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Electric Vehicles and Infrastructure
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Extraction and Separation Processes
- Keywords
- lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, eco-efficiency, battery manufacturing, greenhouse gas emissions, battery cost, commodity prices, electricity mix, production volume, energy density, life cycle assessment, climate change impacts, battery pack
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