Life Cycle Assessment on Electric Moped Scooter Sharing

Abstract

Due to their small size and low energy demand, light electric vehicles (LEVs), such as electric moped scooters, are considered as a space efficient and eco-friendly alternative for mobility in cities. However, the growth of electric moped scooter sharing services raises the question of how environmentally friendly this business model is, considering the entire lifecycle. Due to the dynamic market and insufficient availability of public data on the business processes of sharing services only a few studies on the impact of shared electric mopeds are available. Especially there is a lack of research on the impacts of key operational logistic parameters of the sharing system. This paper aims to fill this gap by conducting a life cycle assessment using the example of an electric moped scooter manufactured and used in sharing services in Germany, based on different operating scenarios. The results show that e-moped sharing has a similar environmental impact on global warming potential, in terms of passenger kilometers, as public transport, especially if long product lifetimes as well as efficient operation logistics are realized.

A Literature Review of Emerging Research Needs for Micromobility—Integration through a Life Cycle Thinking Approach

“…Similarly, the rise of e-moped shared scooters has generated concerns about the business model's long-term sustainability since the worst-case scenario can be 40% more hurtful than the original one. Promisingly, the best-case scenario includes solar-powered e-mopeds and batteries swapped with the assistance of an electric van to achieve 20 gCO 2eq /p-km [57]. So, the study by Schelte et al [57] suggests reducing the impacts of aluminum through recycling processes or using renewable energy sources in the manufacturing stage of micromobility vehicles.…”

“…Promisingly, the best-case scenario includes solar-powered e-mopeds and batteries swapped with the assistance of an electric van to achieve 20 gCO 2eq /p-km [57]. So, the study by Schelte et al [57] suggests reducing the impacts of aluminum through recycling processes or using renewable energy sources in the manufacturing stage of micromobility vehicles. Moreover, the typical operational services performed by vans might start to be replaced by electrical cargo bikes.…”

“…For those, more than 20% of the life cycle CO 2eq emissions are due to electricity production, based on the European mix of 2021, which may be mitigated if renewables replace fossil fuels [59]. Finally, Schelte et al [57] advise on the importance of considering other socio-economic sustainability factors such as road safety in further research.…”

“…From the LCT perspective, studies to perform can be life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), social LCA, and life cycle sustainability assessment (LSCA) [52]. Integrated programs that combine LCA tools with other methodologies have the potential to assist in the evaluation of the urban complexity, particularly larger-scale systems such as mobility-related ones [50][51][52]; • Current analysis of environmental indicators results from LCA must include skepticism, while all the proposals available in a sensitivity analysis of references [49,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59] result in emerging research opportunities to explore and re-evaluate, such as, for instance:…”

“…Considering the effects of replacing steel and aluminum with other materials such as bamboo [55,56]; Recycling aluminum using renewable energy to power the process [57,59]; Replacing trips performed by vans with trips performed by cargo bikes to locally replace the batteries of electrical PMDs [57,58]; E-scooter providers and public transport should work on a joint and multimodal concept [53]; Quantifying more precisely the lifetime and PMD kilometers traveled to increase the accuracy of the LCA [53];…”