Bax & Company, the University of Florence and IKA, presented their life-cycle cost and environmental assessment of the ALLIANCE reference vehicle, at the EUCAR reception on November 14. The three partners teamed up to perform the life-cycle assessment, which will be used as a benchmark to evaluate the performance of novel technologies that will be developed in ALLIANCE, both from a financial and environmental perspective.
The ultimate function of the life-cycle assessment (LCA) and the life-cycle cost (LCC) is to enable project partners to verify throughout the project that they are complying with the project targets.
Share of life-cycle cost categories for the different reference vehicle parts
The targets are as follows: 10% decrease in energy consumption, 6% decrease in global warming potential (GWP) and a 3€/kg saved limit.
In order to enable a comprehensive cost and environmental analysis of the full vehicle, the latter is broken down in three main parts: body-in-white, chassis and closures. Each of these are in turn broken down into modules, which are again divided into mono-material parts.
Furthermore, the manufacturing processes of each and every one of these are specified. All the process steps and related costs involved in each process – including machinery, tools, consumables, labour, energy, etc. – are identified and assessed.
The first step is the collection of detailed information on the specific reference modules for a one-to-one comparison with the demonstrator modules. After this is the collection of input on the new material and manufacturing technologies, and assessment of the demonstrator modules. Then, the assessment of the full vehicle and comparison with the reference one.
