Abstract
KEYWORDS – life cycle assessment, lightweight design, CO2e-emissions, vehicle production, user behavior
ABSTRACT
Facing future challenges in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission reduction, research and development gave birth to a broad range of new automotive technologies. Examples are drivetrain electrification and lightweight vehicle construction. With enhancing and growing complexity of technical solutions, the effort for vehicle manufacturing increases, too. Identifying emission displacements from the in-use phase to the production-phase, the objective of the present publication focusses on life cycle assessment of different technologies with a special attention on lightweight design. A comparison of representative vehicle configurations including different propulsion systems states the basis for a life cycle related evaluation of different body technologies and materials (steel, aluminum and carbon fiber reinforced plastics, CFRP).