A label to power the electric car shift: guiding consumers through the transition from fossil fuels to electrification and providing meaningful information for buyers of light road vehicles

Peer-reviewed paper 6-169-26

This paper is based on a government assignment given to the Swedish Energy Agency to present a proposal for the labelling of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, in the light of the need to modernise the current consumer information rules that do not cater for electrification. The assignment was a follow-up to an earlier government assignment delivered by the Agency in 2022. The focus was to be on energy efficiency, life cycle emissions, as well as tailpipe emissions, and the label was to be easy to understand. The result was a proposal with one colour scale based on the vehicle’s energy efficiency during use. Previous attempts to base a scale on CO₂ emissions during use calculated on fuel life cycle from well to wheel were riddled with practical difficulties. The possibility of including life cycle emissions for the whole vehicle was reviewed. Responses to the 2022-proposal required that default values for vehicle categories be complemented with verified vehicle-specific values in order to ensure that endeavours to improve life cycle emissions should be recognized and presented on the label. The paper summarises the results of a comprehensive mapping of LCA initiatives and shows that there is a lack of harmonised methodology on which to base uniform labelling requirements. Other information elements were explored, and the proposal included detailed information about fuel and electricity consumption for plugin hybrids, and information about the traction battery including range, commercial warranty for the battery, and the battery’s carbon footprint as calculated under the EU battery regulation.