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While electric vehicles including plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) are considered as promising alternative vehicle/fuel systems to significantly reduce petroleum consumption of the transportation sector, it is important to analyze the emission characteristics and to assess the emission reduction potentials of electric vehicles so that their environmental impacts in terms of climate change, air quality, as well as human health effects could be better understood. To fulfill this objective, we explicitly analyzed the emission characteristics of greenhouse gases (GHG) and criteria air pollutants (CAP, representing VOC, CO, NOx, PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅, and SOx,) of the U.S. power sector, a pivotal upstream sector that impacts the life-cycle GHG and CAP emissions associated with electric vehicles.

In recent years, various alternative fuels have been proposed and studied for application in motor vehicles. Consequently, fuel-cycle analyses have been conducted to evaluate their energy and emissions effects. In a typical fuel-cycle analysis, feedstock recovery; feedstock transportation and storage; fuel production; and fuel transportation, distribution, and storage are examined. The general belief is that transportation and storage of feedstocks and fuels have small impacts on fuel-cycle results. However, no thorough studies have been conducted to confirm or disprove this belief. Transportation of feedstocks and fuels via different transportation modes requires use of various fuels and generates air pollutant emissions. Storage of liquid and gaseous fuels is subject to fuel losses, which also lead to air pollutant emissions.