In the past, regulators and automakers have focused almost exclusively on emissions when determining a car’s sustainability.
But this approach is short sighted – it fails to recognize that much of the environmental impact of a car happens before it has even left the assembly line.
For example, while an electric car may produce zero carbon emissions while it is running, the emissions from its production may be up to 60% higher than those created by manufacturing a traditional petrol vehicle.
Building green cars through life cycle assessment
With this in mind, executives at csi entwicklungstechnik, a German engineering services provider for the transportation & mobility industry, wanted to help its automotive clients to design more sustainable vehicles from the outset by embedding life cycle assessment (LCA) from the first stage of the product design process.
LCA is a holistic methodology that enables an automaker to consider the environmental impact of their vehicles from the initial design and engineering stages through production and delivery, as well as operations, servicing and end-of-life.
By using Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform and its cloud-based sustainability solution, csi has achieved its goal. Read the full customer story to discover how it has embedded LCA within a virtual twin, supporting an eco-design process for the customer at the earliest stage of product development, all while optimizing operations, driving down production costs and improving collaboration.