Action Plan Focused on Electric Mobility (APOEM): A Tool for Assessment of the Potential Environmental Benefits of Urban Mobility

Abstract

The promotion of electric mobility has the potential to reduce several impacts of the road transport sector, such as increased emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollutants and natural resource depletion. As such, decision makers and other stakeholders around the world have invested significant efforts in the transition to sustainable urban mobility based on the use of electric vehicles. However, there are few studies that investigate the potential benefits of electric mobility in all its facets; i.e., most focus on analyzing the benefits of replacing conventional cars while leaving aside other means of transportation with greater use and, consequently, higher emissions, such as, primarily, public transport and freight transport vehicles. Thus, this study aims to develop an action plan focused on electric mobility—APOEM, which stipulates gradual implementation steps in a time horizon of 5 years. For this purpose, a city with potential for electric mobility implementation called Atibaia, in the countryside of the State of São Paulo, in Brazil, is investigated. The results show that, in an ambitious scenario of electric vehicle deployment in the City of Atibaia, which presents energy supply compatible with demand, it would be possible to reduce a total of 30,788.70 tons of GHG in 5 years, and, as for emissions of air pollutants, it would be possible to reduce 140.38 tons of CO, 36.38 tons of NMHC, 1.58 tons of RCHO, 130.20 tons of NOx, 3.54 tons of MP and 0.75 tons of SO2 in 5 years. It is also worth noting that, in order for electrification to generate a greater contribution to the environment, it is necessary that electric mobility be generated from renewable energy sources.