Does buying a new truck, van or electric vehicle add Scope 3 Category 2 emissions, and how do I estimate them?

Yes. A truck, van or electric vehicle you capitalise is a capital good, so its full cradle-to-gate manufacturing emissions go in Scope 3 Category 2 in the year you buy it. Use the maker's vehicle footprint if published; otherwise estimate from body materials plus battery kWh, and label the estimate.

Which vehicles count, and in which year

Follow your fixed asset register. A vehicle you own and capitalise goes in Category 2 with all its manufacturing emissions in the year of acquisition, not spread over its life like depreciation. A vehicle on an operating lease or a hired truck is not your capital good, so it does not go in Category 2.

Its fuel or charging is separate. Diesel burnt by an owned truck is Scope 1 and grid electricity used to charge an owned EV is Scope 2, every year it runs.

Why an EV makes the purchase year look worse

The traction battery adds manufacturing emissions that a diesel vehicle of the same size does not have, so the year you buy an electric fleet usually shows a jump in Category 2. The fuel saving arrives later, year by year, in Scope 1 and 2. Explain this in your report so a reader does not mistake the spike for a step backwards, and show the operating saving alongside it.

Estimating a vehicle you cannot get a maker figure for

1. Ask the dealer or maker for a vehicle LCA or product carbon footprint, ideally to ISO 14067, and note its boundary and data year. Some passenger and commercial vehicle makers now publish these.
2. Without one, split kerb mass from the spec sheet into steel, aluminium and other, and apply a published factor to each, plus a labelled allowance for tyres, electronics and assembly.
3. For an EV, estimate the traction battery separately: pack kWh from the registration papers times a per-kWh manufacturing factor from one named study. Published figures vary widely by cell chemistry, plant location and year, so carry a range rather than a single number.
4. If only the price is known, a spend-based estimate for motor vehicles, labelled as spend-based with wider uncertainty.

What to keep for an auditor

• Purchase invoice, registration certificate and the asset register line showing the vehicle was capitalised.
• Kerb mass, battery kWh and chemistry from the spec sheet.
• Each factor's publisher, table and edition, and which of the methods above you used.
• The operating comparison you show next to the purchase-year figure.

Worked example: diesel or electric light goods vehicle

• Body and chassis steel, both versions: 1.0 t x about 1.9 t CO2 per t (worldsteel global average) = 1.9 t CO2
• Other materials, parts and assembly: allowance of 1.0 to 2.0 t CO2e (assumption)
• Diesel version in Category 2: 2.9 to 3.9 t CO2e
• EV battery: 30 kWh x 60 to 120 kg CO2e per kWh (illustrative range; replace with a named study) = 1.8 to 3.6 t CO2e, so the EV shows 4.7 to 7.5 t CO2e
• Running 20,000 km a year (assumed): diesel at 10 km per litre = 2,000 litres x 2.68 = 5,360 kg CO2 in Scope 1
• EV at 0.15 kWh per km (assumed) = 3,000 kWh x 0.710 = 2,130 kg CO2 in Scope 2
• Operating saving: 5,360 minus 2,130 = 3,230 kg a year, so the extra 1.8 to 3.6 t from the battery is matched in about 0.6 to 1.1 years

The battery range, allowance and running figures are placeholders for the arithmetic, not recommended values. Use the maker's figure and your own fuel and charging records when you have them.

What Senseible does here

Senseible keeps the vehicle invoice in the Scope 3 supplier evidence trail with a SHA-256 fingerprint, and where only the price is known it provides a spend-based estimate labelled as spend-based. The diesel slips and charging units that follow are read into Scope 1 and 2 from your documents.

• Counting a new machine in Scope 3
• Machine purchase: Category 1 or 2
• Diesel to electric van CO2 saving
• Emission factor for imported Li-ion cells

Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard (2011), Category 2, GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (2013), Category 2, ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org)

Last reviewed 2026-10-18. Battery manufacturing footprints change quickly with chemistry and grid mix; recheck the study you cite each year.