The European automotive market continues to make great strides in regaining lost ground, but the challenge of reducing environmental impact without threatening demand is a tricky one. Maciej Szymanski is a member of the Sustainable Mobility and Automotive Industry Unit within the Directorate General Enterprise and Industry at the European Commission (EC) and is responsible for the emission legislation and economic situation of the European automotive industry. Automotive World spoke to Szymanski on the challenge of balancing environmental priorities with the need to remain competitive.
Technological momentum
Within the Sustainable Mobility and Automotive Industry Unit, Szymanski covers several topics linked to the competitiveness of the European automotive sector and emissions of vehicle, both light- and heavy-duty. “In my opinion there is a clear link between the automotive legislation and the competitiveness of the European vehicle manufacturers in the global markets,” he explained. “Although sometimes costly and burdensome for the manufacturers, more demanding requirements – should it be for emissions, energy efficiency or safety – create a momentum for the introduction of new technologies and spur developments of innovative solutions. Over years, with a balanced legislation and remarkable creativity and expertise of the vehicle manufacturers, we have managed to position the European industry as a leader in several key areas. It is apparent that technological leadership encouraged by smart regulations is one of the primary reasons for the success of the European manufacturers in the third markets.”
There is always a fine line when it comes to balancing the need to reduce emissions and maintaining industry growth. “Every time a new piece of legation is tabled, an economic analysis and competitiveness proofing is performed,” Szymanski said. “We put major attention to properly assess the impact of new proposals on the industry and whether they might impede growth. In parallel, one can easily notice how effective a demanding though well targeted legislation has been in setting a direction for the developments and encouraging introduction to the market on cutting-edge technologies.”
In my opinion there is a clear link between the automotive legislation and the competitiveness of the European vehicle manufacturers in the global markets
One of the most recent developments on the emission front in the EU centres on the new Vehicle Energy Consumption Calculation Tool (VECTO) computer simulation tool to measure emissions. Developed by the Commission with support from the industry, the novel tool is designed to accurately assess fuel consumption and CO2 emissions for heavy-duty vehicles. “Several approaches have been considered; however, it seems that with a significant variations in terms of vehicles types and applications, computer simulation will be the most robust and least burdensome both for the industry and for the authorities,” said Szymanski.
Until now, most heavy-duty OEMs had relied on their own tools to measure energy efficiency. “Lack of a commonly accepted standard created a situation where no objective and comparable information about truck or bus fuel consumption was available for the consumers,” he explained. “This had a negative impact on the consumers’ purchasing decisions thus preventing the market forces to incentivise further improvements in fuel economy. It is expected that the introduction of VECTO will overcome this problem and we will notice new technologies contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions.”
Industry-shaping trends
While several trends are impacting his areas of oversight, the big ones are energy efficiency and pollutant emission reduction. For light duty vehicles, the division’s real driving emission (RDE) project aims to develop a new procedure to more accurately assess emissions of vehicles in normal operational conditions. “In addition, after the finalisation of the first part of the world harmonized light-duty vehicles test procedure (WLTP) we are putting efforts to introduce it at the European level,” he explained.
On the heavy-duty side, the unit is finalising a project aimed at reviewing PEMS procedure. The goal here, Szymanski said, is to discover to what extent the current procedure is fit for purpose. “In addition, in the coming months, we will initiate a work to develop European provisions which will enable type-approval of heavy-duty hybrid vehicles by means of hardware in-the-loop simulation (HiLS),” he added. “In relation to the energy efficiency challenge, we will shortly launch an expert group, which will prepare a proposal to introduce VECTO into the European legal framework.”
Legislation today must also be flexible to respond to the rise of alternative fuel vehicles, ranging from pure electric to hybrids and fuel cells. “Deployment of alternative fuel vehicles is one of our core activities. The actions taken in this area are threefold,” explained Szymanski. To start with, type-approval procedures for electric, hybrid and hydrogen vehicles have been developed to ensure a legal certainty for vehicle manufacturers and provide confidence for consumers that those vehicles are at least as safe as conventional ones. The EC is also actively promoting global harmonization of those rules in a bid to both facilitate trade and reduce the burden on OEMs.
Funding for research into these new technologies is also important. The European Green Vehicles Initiative has a budget of €1.5bn (US$1.9bn) and marks the biggest R&D programme for the automotive sector. Szymanski believes this project “will serve as a major funding tool for the development of new solutions to increase energy efficiency and reduce pollution.”
As part of efforts to promote development and uptake of cleaner, more efficient vehicles, the EC recently adopted a Clean Power for Transport package. This includes a proposal for a directive on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure and the establishment of minimum recharging/refuelling infrastructure requirements for Member States. “The aim of this proposal was to solve the chicken-egg problem and create a strong stimulus for a deeper penetration of vehicles with alternative powertrains,” he added.
As for future developments, Szymanski’s team is currently focused on a possibility of combining a VECTO approach with hardware in-the-loop simulation (HiLS). “This will enable us to define vehicles emissions on a case by case basis taking into considerations applied technologies,” he said.
Maciej Szymanski will be speaking at Automotive World Megatrends Europe 14, taking place on September 10-11, 2014. Organised by Automotive World, Automotive Megatrends Europe 2014 is a two-day, six-stream conference focusing on Commercial Vehicles and Passenger Cars. Szymanski will participate as a panelist on Day 1: Commercial Vehicle, in Stream 1: Powertrain Innovation, which will focus on key breakthroughs in commercial vehicle powertrain technology that will lead to greater fuel economy and emissions reduction.
