In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of light electric vehicles for personal transport (bicycles and electric scooters). The introduction of these means of transport is increasingly enabling the transition from the use of internal combustion vehicles to sustainable electric mobility. In order to assess the potential impacts and benefits associated with the diffusion of these new vehicles within the urban fabric, it is necessary to analyze the entire life cycle of these vehicles, comparing it with that of traditional vehicles using an energy vector of fossil origin and with electric and hybrid vehicles.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the most appropriate tool to identify and assess the potential environmental impacts associated with the introduction of these new means of electric micromobility.
In order to carry out a study to assess the impact of electric micromobility at a national level, it is first necessary to carry out a literature search to identify LCA studies on electric bicycles and scooters at an international level. The analysis carried out in this work has allowed us to obtain useful indications on how to carry out an LCA study of electric micromobility vehicles.
From the bibliographical analysis carried out, it is clear that the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the most appropriate tool to compare the environmental performance of light electric vehicles with that of traditional internal combustion vehicles capable of providing the same services. None of the works identified and analyzed is applied to the Italian reality and very few are related to the European one. For this reason, the development of an LCA study that analyzes and evaluates the potential environmental impacts of light electric vehicles for the Italian case represents an interesting research opportunity.