Environmental characteristics of Lithium-ion battery pack in electric vehicles

Although electric vehicles do not directly emit greenhouse gases in the running stage on road, the environmental impact of on−board lithium−ion power battery pack in the production stage cannot be ignored. In this study, 11 different lithium−ion battery packs are taken as the case study object. We introduce the environmental characteristic index into the comprehensive environmental assessment field to assess the power battery packs. Combined with the Life Cycle Assessment framework, the index of footprint family, resource depletion and toxic damage are summarized in this research. The combined weighting method of grey correlation and entropy weight is applied. The comprehensive environmental impact of components of lithium−ion batteries in the production stage is analyzed in details. The results show that, for the footprint family index in the comprehensive environmental assessment, FeS₂SS battery pack has the lowest environmental potential in carbon footprint and ecological footprint. As for the resource depletion index, FeS₂SS battery pack has the lowest values in acidification potential, eutrophication potential and photochemical oxidation formation potential. At the same time, it also has relatively low values in abiotic depletion potential and ozone depletion potential. As for toxicity damage index, the potential values of FeS₂SS are the lowest in ecotoxicity and human toxicity non−cancer, and its human toxicity cancer is only higher than that of Li−S battery. For the environmental characteristic index, the FeS₂SS battery pack has the highest score, indicating that it is more green and environmental protection in the production stage.