A life cycle assessment of a Li-ion urban electric vehicle battery

This study presents an approach on the life cycle assessment and environmental impact of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, specially the iron phosphate technology based battery (LFP), through evaluating the different stages in the whole life of the battery starting with the manufacturing stage and then proceeding with the evaluation of its use in Spain until reaching the end-of-life stage, when the battery cannot continue offering a service in the electromobility sector (the actual capacity is under the 80% of the initial one). In this context, different end of life scenarios are considered in order to examine the feasibility of a second hand use for the already-worn battery that consists of reducing its environmental impact by extending the life of the battery in less stressful conditions to ensure the lower effect of the degradation. To this end, the various utilities in the life cycle of this battery are examined with the help of the SimaPro software simulation tool in order to quantitatively assess the potential benefits from an environmental point of view.