EU CO2 truck and bus standards in prospect
By: Alan Bunting, Friday, April 17, 2009, AutomotiveWorld.com
A European Union (EU) standard for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of 130g/km for passenger cars, to be met by 2012, was set in December 2007. The standard is expressed as a so-called fleet average for each manufacturer, which has prompted the addition of numerous small, fuel efficient cars to help bring down the calculated production average for manufacturers such as Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) and BMW. Late last year, the European Environment Agency declared its intention of extending the scheme to include light commercial vehicles, mainly vans, grossing up to about 5 tonnes. A 2012 target of 175g/km has been proposed, reducing to 160g/km by 2015.
Setting CO2 standards for heavier trucks and buses becomes far more difficult from an implementation point of view, though EU legislators appear undaunted; they are pushing ahead anyway. The regulatory challenges arise because of the huge variation in size and weight, not only between different vehicle types, but also between the same models running empty and when they are fully laden. Different body types on the same chassis, with diverse levels of wind-drag, are another ‘rogue’ variable.
Plans to set EU targets for cuts in CO2 emissions from trucks and buses has nevertheless now moved a step nearer with the recent opening of a new laboratory for heavy vehicle testing at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) at Ispra in northern Italy. The facility, designated VELA 7, has a rolling-road dynamometer, able to simulate high engine loads, as well as a 22 metre-long climatic test cell with its own exhaust emissions analysis and measurement equipment. At temperatures down to minus 30degC, it is able to check the real-world effectiveness of catalytic aftertreatment devices which need to reach minimum light-off temperatures.
Janez Potocnik, the European Commissioner for science and research, says one of the laboratory’s roles will be to compare CO2 emissions from heavy-duty diesel engines running on various alternative fuels and from diesel-electric hybrids. He indicates that Euro 6 legislation for trucks and buses is probably too far advanced, in its multi-faceted approval processes within the EU’s technical and regulatory machinery, for CO2 targets to be included when its NOx, particulate and other limits are due to come into force in 2013/4.
It seems likely that, as with those currently legislated air-quality related emissions from vehicles heavier than 3.5 tonnes gvw, future CO2 limits for trucks and buses will be related to engine power, rather than ‘per kilometre’ – as applied for passenger car and van emissions. But any kind of car industry-style corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) regime applicable to every manufacturer looks quite impractical, given that some commercial vehicle producers, for example Scania, build only trucks of 18 tonnes gvw and above.
Separate moves now under way by EU legislators, towards ‘whole vehicle’ type approval for trucks and buses, arguably go against the principle of an engine horsepower-based CO2 standard. But so long as commercial vehicles vary so much in size, shape and weight, there appears no workable alternative.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Automotive World Ltd.
Published on Friday, April 17, 2009
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