Life-cycle environmental and techno-economic modelling of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles

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Electric mobility, driven by reduced costs and potential environmental benefits is experiencing a rapid growth, with the global electric car fleet exceeding 5.1 million units in 2018. The increased market adoption of battery electric vehicles is enabled through the technological maturity of lithium-ion batteries exhibiting favorable performance, cost and environmental patterns. Life cycle assessment is a powerful tool for the determination of the trade-offs between those patterns from a value chain perspective. A detailed engineering system inspired life cycle model for automotive Li-ion batteries is developed in this research, accounting for battery production, utilisation and recycling. The model will be used to evaluate different battery chemistries and technological options from a cost and environmental standpoint and ultimately provide a robust means of decision making, complementing scientific and engineering developments targeting Li-ion battery performance improvements and cost reductions. So far, the production of current and future automotive battery chemistries has been modelled and the environmental performance of several Li-ion battery chemistries and their use in China has been benchmarked.