Solar electric vehicles (SEVs) with integrated photovoltaic (PV) cells have the potential to decrease the related greenhouse gas emissions of regular BEV charging from the electricity grid. However, the environmental impacts and potential areas of improvement of such SEVs is yet under-explored. The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impacts of the vehicle integrated photovoltaics (VIPV) and to assess whether an SEV could act as a sustainable substitute for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) without VIPV. A life cycle assessment is performed to assess the environmental impacts from the cradle-to-grave life cycle, where an SEV is compared to a BEV without VIPV. Several environmental impact categories have been assessed: climate change (CC), acification (AC), energy resources (ER), fossil depletion (FD) and metal depletion (MD). A scenario LCA and sensitivity analysis have been performed to assess the influence of changing parameters on the CC impacts. The sensitivity analysis included different modelling decisions on vehicle efficiency, global horizontal irradiation and driving behavior. With a functional unit of 200,000 vehicle kilometers (vkm) the SEV resulted in lower CC impacts (compared to a BEV). Other impact categories show lower results for the SEV compared to the BEV after a use-phase of 200,000 vkm. The total functional unit of 200,000 vkm resulted in 3,300 kg CO2-eq less CC impacts for the SEV compared to the BEV without VIPV with similar vehicle characteristics. However, environmental impacts related to VIPV production were higher than the production of a regular vehicle exterior which means that the production phase of an SEV causes more impacts than the production of a BEV. In the reference case LCA, results showed that the break-even point of CC impacts between the SEV and BEV occurs at a distance driven of 79,000 vkm (6.1 years of operation in the Netherlands). Sensitivity analyses showed that the CC impacts are influenced by factors such as vehicle efficiency, global horizontal irradiation (GHI) and driving behavior. This study concludes that increasing vehicle efficiency seems to effectively decrease CC impacts similar to the effect that VIPV can have on a vehicle and improving vehicle efficiency can potentially even contribute more to use-phase CC impact savings than substituting a regular exterior by VIPV. Second, the GHI influences CC impacts of the SEV as the ratio of VIPV-electricity to grid-electricity depends on the amount of solar energy that is converted into electricity by the VIPV. Third, a driving behavior that enables the SEV to maximise its share of electricity powered by the VIPV showed the least CC impacts. Importantly, the lower CC impacts from SEVs compared to BEVs does not imply that SEVs are the most sustainable mode of transportation whereas there exist other less carbon-intensive alternatives (e.g. bikes and public transportation). ... Read more

Over the past years, the scientific community has payed increasing attention to the integration of Eco-design in product development processes. In spite of this, Eco-design practices within mainstream manufacturing companies has proven to be scarce. A great share of the literature has focused on the development and improvement of Eco-design tools from a theoretical perspective. A more practical perspective, including companies’ point of view, allow us to identify bottlenecks or improvement potential only visible for practitioners, such as the compatibility of tools with companies’ current procedures, time and data constraints, or guidance provided by output mechanisms. This thesis reviews a set of Eco-design tools adopted or developed by three automotive companies (BMW AG, VW AG and AB Volvo) with decades of experience in Eco-design. The extensive literature review aims at combining and integrating the observed best practices into a model that offers guidance on how to incorporate Eco-design into product development processes of less experienced companies. The model presents an iterative process comprised of three phases: impact assessment, definition of action, and management and control. The impact assessment phase consists of the analysis of hotspots and the comparison of design alternatives. The results from the impact assessment then lead to the definition of improvement actions. Actions that are agreed through team dialogues among different departments of the company which are selected according to a prioritization process to find the right balance between aspects, such as costs, product functionality, customer preference, current and future policy compliance or corporative image. Once impact results are translated into technical targets, the management and control phase ensures that employees are designated to supervise the implementation of actions, report possible rebound effects and inform about the findings that become the knowledge foundation of future projects. The automotive experience also reveals that LCA represents the cornerstone of the three companies in the integration of Eco-design practices, but it is noteworthy that LCA approaches are recognized to be dependent on other indispensable tools. From the observed experience, the LCA studies are conducted in a form that are too dependent on the product system of preceding versions of the product, which often limits radical innovation and rather results in small incremental improvement. In combination with LCA, systematic team dialogues between different knowledge fields shall contribute to the creation of collective knowledge. An appropriate arena that allows experts to reflect on impact results and explore innovative improvement opportunities, out of the scope of LCA practitioners. ... Read more