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Light-duty vehicles (LDVs) are responsible for more than one tenth of global energy use and CO2 emissions and are therefore an important focus in pollution mitigation efforts. Integrated energy models (IEMs) are frequently used to explore cost-optimal climate change mitigation measures for energy supply and demand sectors, such as LDVs. Options include fuel and powertrain switching through efficiency standards, taxation, and technology mandates. This review provides an overview on how LDVs are modeled in 14 popular IEMs. We find that the representation of mitigation options can be enhanced by linking emissions and physical outputs from industry, agriculture, and energy conversion directly to the vehicle life cycle and by more carefully reflecting important factors that influence LDV life cycle emissions. This would allow for a more complete internalization of emissions in the technology mix optimization procedure of IEMs. The results highlight a range of mitigation options currently not considered in most integrated models, such as reducing embodied emissions in infrastructure and vehicle production, reducing methane leakage, or switching to less carbon intensive crude oil grades.