A Monetized Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment Framework for Integrating Environmental, Economic, and Social Impacts: Evidence from Electric Vehicles

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) has been widely used to assess the environmental, economic, and social impacts of emerging technologies. However, its practical application in decision support remains limited due to incompatibility of units of measurement among sustainability dimensions and a lack of transparent integration mechanisms. This study constructs a monetized LCSA framework to examine how battery electric vehicles (BEVs) replacing gas-powered vehicles (GVs) in cold regions covered by carbon-intensive power systems affects overall sustainability performance. The results show that over a 15-year lifespan, BEVs reduce life cycle costs by 28.74% and carbon-related environmental costs by 25.27% compared to GVs, demonstrating significant economic and environmental advantages. However, BEVs show a 4.23% decrease in standardized socially perceived performance, primarily due to consumer concerns about transparency, privacy, and end-of-life liability. These findings suggest that incorporating social dimensions can significantly alter sustainability conclusions and reveal trade-offs that traditional single-dimensional assessments cannot capture. This study provides new empirical evidence for the comprehensive application of monetized life cycle sustainability assessment and offers valuable insights for vehicle design improvements, increased social acceptance, and low-carbon transportation policies in cold and carbon-intensive regions.