This paper applies a case study approach for Australia and calculates the equipment life cycle assessment of diesel, hybrid and electric buses. This study prepared the assessment according to the procedures and methodologies outlined in the ISO 14040:2006 Environmental Management – Life Cycle Assessment. The authors have chosen three bus models currently in service in the Australian bus fleet to serve as a baseline model for comparison. The amount of greenhouse gas emissions were calculated from the production, assembly, transportation, maintenance and disposal phases. The results in this study show that the electric bus has a higher total environmental impact than the diesel and hybrid bus, mainly due to the manufacturing of the lithium-ion battery. The results also show that the electric bus has a higher environmental impact than the diesel and hybrid bus (18.2% and 14.7% higher, respectively), albeit specific to the product life cycle and without including operation emissions. However, there are many opportunities to reduce product life cycle emissions, such as improvement in manufacturing efficiency, developing new battery technology and production in regions with low carbon-intense grid-mixes.

本文采用澳大利亚的案例研究方法，计算柴油、混合动力和电动公交车的设备生命周期评估。本研究根据 ISO 14040:2006 环境管理 - 生命周期评估中概述的程序和方法准备评估。作者选择了澳大利亚公交车队中目前使用的三种公交车模型作为比较的基准模型。温室气体排放量从生产、组装、运输、维护和处置阶段计算。本研究的结果表明，电动公交车对环境的总体影响高于柴油和混合动力公交车，这主要是由于锂离子电池的制造。结果还表明，电动巴士比柴油和混合动力巴士对环境的影响更大（分别高出 18.2% 和 14.7%），尽管特定于产品生命周期并且不包括运营排放。然而，减少产品生命周期排放的机会很多，例如提高制造效率、开发新的电池技术以及在低碳密集电网混合地区生产。