Integrated Energy, Economic, and Environmental Assessment of BEVs, FCEVs, and ICEVs Using the Triple-E Efficiency Framework

Vehicle technologies are commonly evaluated using energy consumption, operating cost, and environmental impact as separate indicators, which can lead to conflicting technology rankings. This study applies the Triple-E Efficiency (η3e) framework to integrate energy efficiency (ηe), economic efficiency (ηo), and environmental efficiency (ηv) into a single indicator for comparing battery electric vehicles (BEVs), fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), and petrol internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). We adopted a functional unit of 1 vehicle-kilometre travelled and equal weighting across the three dimensions. The BEV exhibited the lowest energy consumption (0.547 MJ/km) and operating energy cost (A$0.0504/km). At the same time, the FCEV achieved the highest environmental-efficiency score (ηv = 0.3263) under the adopted low-emission hydrogen scenario, based on a hydrogen emission factor of 0.60 kg CO2-e/kg H2. The resulting (η3e) values were 66.51% for the BEV, 65.56% for the FCEV, and 17.27% for the ICEV, indicating that the BEV achieved the most balanced performance. Sensitivity analysis further indicates that reducing the hydrogen price from the assumed A$15.50/kg to approximately A$14.90/kg would allow the FCEV to achieve an overall η3e comparable to that of the BEV under the assumptions adopted in this study. The study’s novelty lies in proposing a unified, adjustable metric that captures energy, economic, and environmental performance and allows for policy-sensitive variables within a common framework. The approach provides a transparent decision-support tool for comparing competing vehicle technologies. However, the present environmental assessment represents an operational energy-supply comparison rather than a complete vehicle life-cycle assessment. The proposed framework can also be applied to other types of energy conversion, generation, and consumption, such as power generation, without any major modification. Future extensions could integrate well-to-wheel or life-cycle environmental inventories and monetised external-cost estimates for energy supply, enabling an evaluation of the environmental dimension alongside energy and economic performance within the Triple-E framework.