What is Life Cycle Assessment or LCA?
To understand the true ecological impact and sustainability of a car, it must be viewed in the context of its whole life cycle. This means that all processes and flows of resources and energy associated with the car’s production, usage, and recycling at the end of its life must be considered. Life Cycle Assessment, or LCA, is the method that estimates these individual contributions to predict the car’s environmental impact over its entire lifetime “from cradle to grave”.
It is important to understand that LCA does not solely include attributes of the car itself: for instance, the LCA assessment of an electric car can be different from country to country, depending on whether more, or less renewable energy is used for recharging.
This also means that LCA cannot be as precise as emissions testing. The outcome must always be considered as an estimate, based on generally available data and assumptions. Nevertheless, there is international consensus that the environmental effects of different cars can only be truly compared on the basis of a Life Cycle Assessment, including the production, operation and the end-of-life treatment of the various facilities.
There is international consensus that the environmental effects of transportation systems can only be truly analysed and compared on the basis of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) including the production, operation and the end-of-life treatment of the various facilities.
source: JOANNEUM RESEARCH
Greenhouse Gases, Primary Energy Demand and Pollutants
Green NCAP’s Life Cycle Assessment focuses on three key measures: greenhouse gas emissions, primary energy demand and pollutants. Greenhouse gases contribute to the greenhouse effect so the sum of the gas emissions, produced in the different phases of a vehicle’s lifecycle, is an important indicator of the vehicle’s impact on global warming. The greenhouse gases investigated are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), expressed as emitted CO2 equivalent.
The primary energy demand is equally important because energy is scarce and valuable and should be utilised efficiently. The required primary energy, which must be extracted from one or multiple non-renewable (fossil) or renewable sources (e.g. wind, solar or hydropower), is expressed in kWh or MWh.
The pollutants assessment signifies the importance of the emission of harmful substances in all life cycle phases, contrary to the limited view of combustion engine exhaust emissions only. The assessed species are NOx, NH3, CO, NMVOC and PM2.5.
The analysis considers the greenhouse gases emitted during the production of the vehicle and its components, including tyres and batteries. In broad terms, this part of the analysis is based on the vehicle’s size, weight and the type of powertrain. The results presented make use of publicly available data about global generic supply chains but can also account for the production or recycling processes of specific vehicle manufacturer brands, if the necessary data is revealed to Green NCAP and verified by its experts.
Different cars produce different amounts of greenhouse gases while they are being driven. A unique feature of Green NCAP’s approach is the combination of actual vehicle testing with the life cycle assessment. The average, best and worst measured fuel and energy consumptions from Green NCAP’s tests serve as realistic input data for the LCA calculations, making the effect of driving style and ambient conditions on the LCA results evident.
LCA Information
LCA information can be complex and hard to understand. To provide more insight and more usable advice to consumers, Green NCAP presents LCA results in two ways:
LCA Results & Fact Sheets
The LCA analysis assumes a vehicle lifetime of 16 years and a driven mileage of 240,000 km and the calculations are based on current forecast about changing average energy mix of the 27 European Union member states. This table overview provides you with the best overall comparison between those cars on the European market that have been tested under Green NCAP conditions. Besides car specifications, the LCA fact sheet includes a simplified schematic of the process chain and a graphical representation of the LCA outcome. As of 2025, this information is be moved to the Green NCAP vehicle assessment sheets, where the pollutants LCA results are introduced as well.
LCA Interactive Tool
LCA parameters can be customized to local and personal circumstances, such as driven mileage, renewable energy mix and country. This option allows you to compare up to three cars and two countries, specific to your needs and conditions. The interactive platform draws data from a large database that, amongst others, contains vehicles tested by Green NCAP and by the Ecotest programme.
Limitations
Green NCAP’s LCA involves estimations based on the available data and state-of-the art scientific methodology, developed by JOANNEUM RESEARCH and peer-reviewed by the Paul Scherrer Institute and Ricardo. With regard to the impact on global warming and total primary energy demand, the most relevant environmental aspects are accounted for. The introduction of pollutants life cycle assessment in 2025 enlarges the programmes’ scope.
The analysis is based on publicly available scientifically accepted information about vehicle production or recycling processes but can also consider specific data of single vehicle manufacturers or models, if the necessary data is revealed to Green NCAP and verified by its experts. Green NCAP encourages the disclosure of brand and model-specific, certified LCA results as they give even more precise insights into the lifecycle environmental performance of particular vehicles and provide evidence about the manufacturer’s effort to contribute to the sustainability goals.
Starting with 2025, the LCA greenhouse gas results take into account where the vehicle production is done, as some parts of the world have higher industry emissions than others. A study performed for Green NCAP by A2MAC1 (based on CO2 emission factors from Sustamize), delivered the foundation for the estimation of these differences.