Abstract
Transport electrification can reduce climate impacts, but its environmental performance depends on vehicle production, energy supply, operation, and end-of-life treatment. This study compares battery electric vehicles (BEVs), non-plug-in gasoline hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and gasoline internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) using model parameters relevant to Greece. A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment was implemented in openLCA using ReCiPe 2016 Endpoint (H), with a functional unit of 150,000 vehicle-kilometres. Both electrified configurations exhibited lower impacts than the ICEV across all 18 indicators with positive results. The BEV achieved reductions of 43.2% in global-warming damage to human health, 44.8% in fine particulate matter formation, and 45.1% in terrestrial acidification relative to the ICEV. The HEV achieved reductions of 51.5% and 55.8% in fossil and mineral resource scarcity, respectively. Each electrified technology recorded the lowest value in nine positive indicators. The BEV–HEV ranking-margin analysis identified equal-impact thresholds of 9.05% for global-warming damage to human health and 4.25% for human carcinogenic toxicity. Negative water-consumption indicators were retained without interpretation as physical water savings. The findings identify category-specific trade-offs and support coordinated vehicle-efficiency and electricity-decarbonization measures without establishing overall environmental superiority.