The comparison of whole life performance in transportation systems is a complex undertaking and can lead to confusing, counter intuitive results. Much of this arises due to the complex interactions of different elements in the energy usage system. For example, the energy used in the transportation system includes both energy in vehicle usage and energy in transporting fuel. Therefore the system tends to lead to questions over their validity and accuracy. This work attempts to build a whole system model that includes well to wheel energy and use phase energy in more detail so as to allow better comparison of competing technologies'. The developed system is used to compare lightweight vehicles and electric vehicles against more conventional technology. The results show that despite the losses occurring throughout the electric system it is still more energy efficient in overall, but the upstream energy used in generation of electrical energy is significantly greater than for fossil fuels. The fossil fuels retain the advantages, despite the engine inefficiency, due to the high energy density of the fuel. It is also clear from the system perspective that current electric power generation is insufficient to replace all vehicles with electric. Apart from that the use of surplus value function for automotive applications is first attempted in this research. The results show this not only applicable for commercial vehicle application, but it also applicable for non-commercial vehicle application to investigate the value of the automobile ownership.