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Analysis of institutional authors

Puig-Samper Naranjo GAuthorBolonio DAuthorOrtega MfAuthorGarcía-Martínez MjCorresponding Author

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Comparative life cycle assessment of conventional, electric and hybrid passenger vehicles in Spain

Publicated to:Journal Of Cleaner Production. 291 125883- - 2021-04-01 291(), DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.125883

Authors: Naranjo, Gonzalo Puig-Samper; Bolonio, David; Ortega, Marcelo F; Garcia-Martinez, Maria-Jesus

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Abstract

© 2021 Elsevier Ltd Electric and hybrid vehicles are being promoted in European countries to significantly improve air quality in urban areas and reduce Greenhouse Gases emissions. This study evaluates and compares the potential environmental effects of electric, hybrid, petrol, and diesel cars in Spain using a cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Assessment approach. It aims to accomplish a precise analysis of a wide range of environmental impact categories. To this end, we provide a transparent inventory of components and vehicle manufacture, their distribution, use phase, and end-of-life, together with a detailed description of the Spanish 2014–2018 electricity generation mix. Furthermore, based on European projections, the work evaluates future energy scenarios, 2030 and 2050, to assess the impact of increasing renewable electricity in electric cars. In the current Spanish scenario and assuming a lifetime of 150,000 km, BEV life cycle CO2-eq emissions are 48% lower than petrol ICEV. Future scenarios of the Spanish electricity grid confirm that a massive introduction of renewable energies would lead to a 19.26% and 27.41% decrease of CO2-eq emissions in 2030 and 2050, respectively. Nevertheless, current and future energy scenario predictions show that electric vehicles will produce an increase in fine particulate matter formation (26%), human carcinogenic (20%) and non-carcinogenic toxicity (61%), terrestrial ecotoxicity (31%), freshwater ecotoxicity (39%), and marine ecotoxicity (41%) relative to petrol vehicles. Transfer of environmental burdens from the use phase to the raw materials extraction and manufacturing phases entails a delocalisation of the impacts, which constitutes a new challenge at environmental, social, and legal levels. This study is the first comparative analysis of the environmental impacts of passenger vehicles in Spain from a cradle-to-grave perspective, considering different impact categories and time scopes.

Keywords

Diesel vehicleElectric vehicleLife cycle assessmentPetrol vehicleSustainable mobility

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Journal Of Cleaner Production due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position 24/279, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Environmental Sciences. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 3. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 3.2 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-08, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 61
  • Scopus: 72
  • Google Scholar: 105
  • OpenCitations: 50

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-08:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 256.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 245 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 91.59.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 35 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/85742/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 90
  • Downloads: 25

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (PUIG-SAMPER NARANJO, GONZALO) and Last Author (GARCIA MARTINEZ, MARIA JESUS).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been GARCIA MARTINEZ, MARIA JESUS.