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Life-cycle emissions of a battery electric car in the EU (ICCT)

Greenhouse gas emissions over the whole life of a medium-size battery electric car sold in the European Union in 2025, per kilometre driven: making the car and its battery, producing the electricity it uses on the EU's projected average grid mix for 2025-2044, maintenance and recycling. The ICCT estimates it at 63 grams of CO2-equivalent per kilometre, 73 percent less than a comparable petrol car.

Latest value

63g CO₂e/km

European Union, 2025 (projection). Version ICCT report ID 392 (July 2025).

As published

“As presented in Figure ES1, BEVs operating on the projected 2025–2044 average EU electricity mix had estimated life-cycle GHG emissions of 63 g CO2e/km.”

Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars in the European Union (ICCT 2025), Executive summary, p. i. Checked word for word against the stored copy of the document every time the data is rebuilt.

Where it comes from

Producer
International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) · Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars in the European Union (ICCT 2025)
Version
ICCT report ID 392 (July 2025)
File
https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ID-392-%E2%80%93-Life-cycle-GHG_report_final.pdf
Fetched
2026-10-05 (automatically), 1,235,655 bytes
Fingerprint
sha256 5f28121f4899372929972d5d6f648b272ef702535137abf8f64140e4004cb93cETag "686bfbbd-12dac7" · Last-Modified Mon, 07 Jul 2025 16:54:21 GMT
Copies
No Wayback copy recorded yet.
Cite the producer
Negri, M., & Bieker, G. (2025). Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars in the European Union: A 2025 update and key factors to consider. International Council on Clean Transportation. https://theicct.org/publication/electric-cars-life-cycle-analysis-emissions-europe-jul25/

What was done to it

  1. Quoted from Executive summary, p. i. The quote was found in the text of page 3 of the snapshot (sha256 5f28121f4899…) before publishing.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/literature.py · code sha256 a5b5e1344e63f00f… · inputs 5f28121f4899…

  2. Value: "63 g CO2e/km" is published as 63 grams of CO2-equivalent per kilometre for cars sold in 2025.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/literature.py · code sha256 a5b5e1344e63f00f… · inputs 5f28121f4899…

What it covers

Geography
European Union
Basis
Sales-weighted average medium-segment car (SUVs excluded) registered in the EU in 2023, sold in 2025 and driven for 20 years on the projected 2025–2044 average EU electricity mix; vehicle and battery production and recycling, electricity production and maintenance. Depends on that grid projection.
Unit
grams of CO2-equivalent per kilometre (g CO₂e/km)