Supplementary material from "The impact of reducing car weight on global emissions: the future fleet in Great Britain"

However, these targets do not consider the emissions produced in electricity generation and material production and therefore fail to incentivise car manufacturers to consider the benefits of vehicle weight reduction. In this paper, we examine the potential benefits of limiting the average weight and altering material composition of new cars in terms of global greenhouse gases emissions produced during the use phase, electricity generation and material production.

We anticipate the emissions savings for the future car fleet in Great Britain until 2050 for various alternative futures, using a dynamic material flow analysis of ferrous metals and aluminium, and considering an evolving demand for car use. The results suggest that fostering vehicle weight reduction could produce greater cumulative emissions savings by 2050 than those obtained by incentivising a fast transition to electric drivetrains, unless there is an extreme decarbonization of the electricity grid.