With the proliferation of e-commerce, the last-mile logistics sector has grown significantly, highlighting the need to manage the environmental consequences of this phenomenon, especially to achieve city decarbonization goals and improve citizens’ quality of life. In this context, the authors conducted a life cycle assessment of last-mile logistics to analyze and compare different vehicle options providing the same service in an urban setting: a four-wheel electric cargo bike, an electric van, a plug-in hybrid van, and a diesel van. The assessment shows that the e-cargo bike performs best across all impact categories considered.

The second-best option is the e-van, while the diesel van shows the worst environmental results. Focusing on decarbonization, replacing a diesel van with an electric van or an e-cargo bike allows for a reduction of 173 g CO₂ eq/km and 250 g CO₂ eq/km, respectively. Similar results are obtained for the Photochemical Ozone Formation indicator, with associated emissions of 0.18, 0.31, 0.45, and 0.49 g NMVOC eq/km for the e-cargo bike, electric vans, plug-in hybrid vans, and diesel vans, respectively. The only exceptions are the impact categories of Human Health, Acidification, and Respiratory Inorganics, for which the plug-in hybrid van performs worst, and Resource use, Minerals, and Metals, for which the electric van performs worst.