Life Cycle Assessment of Shared Dockless Stand-up E-scooters in Sweden

Abstract

Shared stand-up e-scooters have been used in Sweden since 2018. Both models in use and policies applied in different cities have evolved rapidly. The objective of this study was to examine the environmental impacts of shared stand-up e-scooters in use in Sweden; and to identify the key factors that impact the resource and energy efficiency of these e-scooters. The findings can help e-scooter providers and cities reduce the environmental impacts of shared e-scooter services. A comparative life cycle assessment was conducted on two main cases: Case 1 corresponds to first-generation shared e-scooter models that dominated the Swedish market from 2018 to 2020, while Case 2 corresponds to a significantly heavier e-scooter model that was introduced in Sweden from 2020 onwards. The results show that the production of e-scooters is the part of the life cycle with the largest contribution to the environmental impacts for both e-scooter models.

Keywords

• shared e-scooters; dockless e-scooters; life cycle assessment; climate change; urban transport; micromobility