Life cycle assessment of electric and gasoline vehicles considering grid differences and cold climate in China

This study presents a regionally and seasonally resolved life cycle assessment (LCA) comparing battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and gasoline vehicles (GVs) in China, integrating the influence of regional power grid composition and cold-climate effects. Using the ReCiPe 2016 endpoint and IPCC 2021 GWP100 methods implemented in SimaPro with Ecoinvent 3.9.1 data, the analysis quantifies annual and seasonal use-phase emissions across six regional grids. Results show that BEVs emit 25.3% fewer greenhouse gases annually than GVs but cause 2.6 times higher land transformation impacts due to coal-intensive electricity. In Heilongjiang Province, sub-zero conditions reduce BEV charging efficiency to 59% in winter, raising seasonal emissions by up to 70% and lowering the overall GHG advantage to 14.2%. Sensitivity analysis indicates that increasing clean energy penetration reduces human health damage by 15% (DALYs) and resource depletion costs by 91%. The proposed framework uniquely incorporates temperature-dependent performance and regional energy heterogeneity, enabling a more realistic assessment of BEV sustainability under fossil-based and cold-climate conditions. Overall, the findings demonstrate that BEVs consistently outperform GVs in fossil and biogenic emissions but are constrained by land transformation impacts and grid carbon intensity. Achieving genuine zero-emission transport requires coupling BEV promotion with renewable energy expansion and battery efficiency improvements for low-temperature regions.