Abstract
This paper presents a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of seven vehicle types, including passenger and freight transport options, to evaluate the environmental impacts of different propulsion technologies such as electric, natural gas, petrol, and diesel across two urban settings: Reykjavík, Iceland (Global North) and Bogotá, Colombia (Global South). The study analyzes 18 distinct environmental impact categories, focusing on Global Warming Potential (GWP), particulate matter formation (PMFP), fossil fuel potential (FFP), and human toxicity potential (HTPc). The findings showed that Electric Vehicles (EVs) had a significantly higher impact in the category of Surplus Ore Potential (SOP), where busses were significantly lower due to their much higher occupancy rates than that of other passenger vehicles. For the PMFP impact category, EVs also had the highest impact, speaking to the PMFP of the electricity used, though this was to a smaller extent than the other categories. For freight transit, the vehicles studied included a diesel freight lorry and FAME diesel freight lorry. It could be seen that the regular diesel lorry had a higher GWP potential (by 38.35%), but the FAME diesel had higher impacts (and in some cases significantly higher) in most other impact categories. It was also detected that the GHG potential is lowest in Iceland with electric vehicles, while in Bogotá, buses have the lowest emissions due to the renewable energy mix in Iceland and higher public transit occupancy rates in Colombia. This illustrates the importance of context-specific environmental policies in reducing the negative impacts from transportation. Graphical Abstract