The contribution of electric vehicles to the changes of airborne emissions

This Paper focuses on possible impacts of direct vs. indirect airborne emissions caused by a change in the vehicle fleet from internal combustion vehicles (ICV) to battery electric vehicles (BEV) in the area of Stuttgart. Using BEVs results in a shift of direct air emissions from urban areas to the site of the power plants. The consequences of this dilemma were assessed in two scenarios using BEVs and compared to a 2010 base line scenario with no BEVs. For both scenarios a BEV market share of 10 % was used in combination with two different charging modes. Depending on the scenarios, direct air emissions (NO
_x
, NMVOC, CO, CO
₂
) are reduced by more than 10% as compared to a pure ICV personal car fleet. Independent from the decreased direct emissions of ICV a surplus of air emissions is produced by fossil fuel fired power plants generating electricity for BEVs, resulting in a higher CH
₄
and PM emission rate in a range of 1.6-8%.