Efficient commercial powertrains – How to achieve a 30% GHG reduction in 2030

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector, the EU has agreed on new regulations to limit the CO2 emissions of new heavy-duty vehicles over 16 tons by 15% from 2025 onwards and by 30% from 2030 onwards compared to the 2019 reference. These CO2 targets pose a major challenge, especially for the heavy-duty sector. The increase in freight traffic and vehicle size as well as weight restrictions limit the reduction potential of energy consumption. Moreover, the total costs of ownership (TCO) play a decisive role in which technologies find their way into this competitive market. Recent studies show that new energy sources from renewable energies will have a noticeable effect on reducing CO2 emissions in the transport sector until 2030.In this transition, a significant portion will be achieved by vehicle measures, like e.g. aerodynamic and rolling resistance improvements, as well as intelligent mobility vehicle functionalities. To reduce CO2 emissions of long-haul trucks, the focus during the next decade will continue to be on optimizing the efficiency of the powertrain driven by an internal combustion engine. The improvement of the combustion efficiency is one part of the possible and necessary measures.An additional potential is to recycle a part of the engine’s waste energy generated during operation wherever and whenever it can be used efficiently. Because of region-specific legislations, applications and market demands prior to 2025, a short-term flexible integration is crucial and therefore requires a modular architecture. It consists of four major systems: Energy converters for the recovery of otherwise lost energy from vehicle braking operations and exhaust gas enthalpy such as Integrated Starter Generators (ISG) or Waste Heat Recovery systems (WHR) Electrically supported exhaust gas aftertreatment solutions to comply with next level pollutant emission standards 48V board network Electrically driven auxiliaries such as electrically assisted boosting devices or an electrically driven EGR pump to optimize engine operation over the entire operating range. The presentation describes the concept of such a modular electrified HD long haul Truck. Based on driving cycle simulations, the potential of the various modules, different configurations and applications are determined.In addition, it is analyzed how the use of alternative fuels (e.g. H2, Methanol, CNG, LNG, etc.) can further reduce CO2 emissions. As further initiative in this paper, intelligent mobility vehicle functionalities will be presented, which use information about truck and cloud connectivity and are adapted to the customer-specific truck operation requirements.