Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Electric Vehicles Associated with Wind and Photovoltaic Electricity

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.