Also discussed here: Well-to-Wheels Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Analysis of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (70 page pdf, A. Elgowainy, A. Burnham, M. Wang, J. Molburg, and A. Rousseau, Argonne National Laboratory, Feb. 2009)
Today we review a publication from the US Dept of Energy that compares the emissions, both tail pipe and well to wheels, of hybrid vehicles to those running on conventional gasoline. The results indicate not surprisingly that hybrids use 40-60% less gas. One very important point though is the source of the electricity used to power the plug-in hybrids where some regions (such as Ontario) drawing its power from non-pulluting sources from carbon fuel emissions, such as hydro and nuclear, while others depend almost entirely on coal, natural gas or oil.
Key Quotes:
“Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and all-electric vehicles (EVs) typically produce lower emissions than conventional vehicles do”
“EVs and PHEVs running only on electricity have zero tailpipe emissions, but emissions may be produced by the source of electrical power, such as a power plant. In geographic areas that use relatively low-polluting energy sources for electricity generation, PHEVs and EVs typically have a well-to-wheel emissions advantage over similar conventional vehicles running on gasoline or diesel”
“[in the USA] 91% of coal use is for electric power generation, and 51% of electric power is produced by coal combustion”
“PHEVs that employ biomass-based fuels (e.g., biomass-E85 and -hydrogen) may not realize GHG emissions benefits over regular HEVs if the marginal generation mix is dominated by fossil sources”
“PHEVs that employed petroleum fuels, E85, and hydrogen, …were shown to reduce petroleum energy use by 40–60%, 70–90%, and more than 90%, and GHG emissions by 30–60%, 40–80%, and 10–100%, respectively, compared with those of a conventional gasoline ICEV”
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