Environmental impacts analysis of European and Chinese bicycle manufacturing

The use of bicycles is promoted to reduce the environmental impacts of road transport. Nevertheless, the bicycles manufacturing and transportation to the customer generate impacts related to the materials and energy used. To assess how the environmental performances of bicycles production are influenced by the local framework, the study analysed the European and Chinese production of bicycles sold in Europe. The life cycle assessment (LCA) of the production of one bicycle (set as functional unit) included the manufacturing of components, the final assembly, and the transportation to Europe when performed. Muscular propulsion bicycles (bikes) and electric bicycles (e-bikes) and two time horizons (2020 and 2030) were considered. Three geographical scenarios were evaluated: (i) bicycles manufactured in Europe together with their components; (ii) bicycles manufactured in China and shipped to Europe; (iii) bicycles manufactured in Europe with components produced both in China and in Europe. The results showed that producing bicycles in Europe allows for substantial benefits compared to producing them in China, for every type of bicycle and time horizon evaluated, with significant reductions for most of the impact categories, including climate change. The impact of producing one bike in Europe resulted between 61 and 80 kgCO2eq (107–162 kgCO2eq for an e-bike), with the lowest values observed for 2030. For the Chinese manufacturing, the impact increases to 141–166 kgCO2eq/bike (209–287 kgCO2eq/e-bike). Moreover, the study highlighted the benefits allowed by the use of renewable energy and of recycled aluminium in the components production.