Life cycle GHG emissions and lifetime costs of medium-duty diesel and battery electric trucks in Toronto, Canada Taylor Zhou, Matthew J. Roorda ⇑ , Heather L. MacLean, Jason Luk Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Toronto, 35 St. George, St. Toronto, ON M5S 1A4, Canada article info Article history: Keywords: Life cycle assessment GHG emissions Medium-duty trucks Fuel consumption Lifetime costs abstract Battery-electric trucks (BET) are an alternative to diesel trucks and have the potential for lower life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and total lifetime costs (TCO). This study compares a Class 6 medium-duty BET with a Class 6 medium-duty diesel truck. Vehicle fuel consumption is simulated for Toronto driving conditions, based on different drive cycles, operating temperatures and payloads. The base case results show the BET has lower life cycle GHG emissions and higher lifetime TCO than the diesel truck, but this does not hold across all conditions. GHG emissions of the BET are higher than those of the diesel truck under 100% payload in driving conditions with infrequent stops, while the results are less sensitive to operating temperature. The lifetime cost of the BET can be lower than that of the diesel truck in situations that have driving with frequent stops/starts and with low pay- loads and low battery and charging station costs. These variables also affect estimated GHG abatement costs, which are highly relevant as carbon pricing is being introduced in the province. Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Medium-duty trucks (MDT), Classes 4–6, have gross vehicle weight ratings between 6351 kg and 11,793 kg. These trucks are mainly used for vocational purposes, such as emergency, delivery and dump trucks (Freightliner, 2016). The total energy used by MDTs in Canada increased by 19% from 1990 to 2011, despite average diesel fuel consumption decreasing 17%. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated that MDTs had the highest average annual growth rate (2.2%) in energy use from 2009 to 2035 among commercial transportation modes (e.g., buses and heavy-duty trucks) (EIA, 2011). The increasing delivery demand and the rising sales and market share of MDTs may have resulted in the growth in energy consumption despite the efficiency improvements (Natural Resources Canada, 2011; Statistics Canada, 2013). The battery electric powertrain is a promising technology to reduce energy consumption and life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in both passenger vehicles and commercial trucks (National Research Council, 2010). Duran et al. (2014) noted that last-mile delivery fleets: (1) travel mostly in conditions with frequent stopping (where the greatest fuel consump- tion reduction occurs when using a battery electric truck (BET) compared to a diesel truck), (2) can have fixed routes for delivery and travel relatively short distances, and thus may be able to operate within the constraints of BET battery capac- ities, and (3) can return to a central location at the end of the day, where charging infrastructure can be located. Therefore, battery electric MDTs are candidates for last-mile fleets. This is beginning to be reflected in policies incentivizing the pur- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2017.06.019 1361-9209/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: Tay.zhou@mail.utoronto.ca (T. Zhou), roordam@ecf.utoronto.ca (M.J. Roorda). Transportation Research Part D 55 (2017) 91–98 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Transportation Research Part D journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/trd