This paper presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) study that examines a number of scenarios that complement the primary use phase of electric vehicle (EV) batteries with a secondary application in smart buildings in Spain, as a means of extending their useful life under less demanding conditions, when they no longer meet the requirements for automotive purposes. Specifically, it considers a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery to analyze four second life application scenarios by combining the following cases: (i) either reuse of the EV battery or manufacturing of a new battery as energy storage unit in the building; and (ii) either use of the Spanish electricity mix or energy supply by solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. Based on the Eco-indicator 99 and IPCC 2007 GWP 20a methods, the evaluation of the scenario results shows that there is significant environmental benefit from reusing the existing EV battery in the secondary application instead of manufacturing a new battery to be used for the same purpose and time frame. Moreover, the findings of this work exemplify the dependence of the results on the energy source in the smart building application, and thus highlight the importance of PVs on the reduction of the environmental impact.

Recent data on conventional bike and/or electric bike (e-bike) sharing systems reveal that more than 2900 systems are operating in cities worldwide, indicating the increased adoption of this alternative mode of transportation. Addressing the existing gap in the literature regarding the deployment of e-bike sharing systems (e-BSSs) in particular, this paper reviews their spatio-temporal characteristics, and attempts to (a) map the worldwide distribution of e-BSSs, (b) identify temporal trends in terms of annual growth/expansion of e-BSS deployment worldwide and (c) explore the spatial characteristics of the recorded growth, in terms of adoption on a country scale, population coverage and type of system/initial fleet sizes. To that end, it examines the patterns identified from the global to the country level, based on data collected from an online source of BSS information worldwide. A comparative analysis is performed with a focus on Europe, North America and Asia, providing insights on the growth rate of the specific bikesharing market segment. Although the dockless e-BSS has been only within three years of competition with station-based implementations, it shows a rapid integration to the overall technology diffusion trend, while it is more established in Asia and North America in comparison with Europe and launches with larger fleet sizes.