Electric versus Internal Combustion: What are the Actual Emissions and Health Impacts?

While electric vehicles (EVs) are known to produce zero tailpipe emissions, their air quality impacts are mostly modeled and not measured. As many jurisdictions are transitioning school buses and other fleets, measuring the impact of transitioning from diesel buses to electric buses can help quantify improvements and plan for a healthy future. This project improves upon current comparisons between vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICEs) and EVs, with a focus on school buses. The research will move beyond modeled estimates through emissions testing and exposure measurement. The project will include emissions testing in various conditions in a controlled testing facility to produce ground truth data for both ICE vehicles and EVs. The contained, controlled facility allows for testing of ambient as well as in-cab air quality measurements during bus operations. The measured results will be used to perform comparative analyses of the entire life cycle of EVs and ICE vehicles, taking into account battery mining, production, and disposal among other elements of vehicles' life-cycle analysis. Results could be incorporated into air quality planning at the regional level, as well as to support local air quality improvement and fleet transition efforts.