Load point shifting for Diesel engines – potentials for passenger car and truck engine applications

Public discussion concerning the “Dieselgate” scandal creates the impression that the Diesel engine is at the end of its life and does not need further development efforts. In reality, the Diesel engine in passenger car and truck application is and will be realizing the major duties for transportation of passengers and goods.Current engines were developed regarding the former market requirements, i.e. with respect to the legislation boundaries of the last decade. In fact, in the last decades, a reduction in particle emission of about 99 % and about 20 % for CO₂ emissions has been realized (please also refer to Mollenhauer and Tschöke).Upcoming fuel consumption requirements and future legislation levels will force further improvement of consumption and emissions of Diesel engines. This implies test cycles like WLTP (Worldwide Light Duty Vehicle Test Procedure) for passenger car or WHTC (World Harmonized Transient Cycle) for truck applications, and furthermore also real world driving cycles in the future. In particular, Real World Driving Emission (RDE) monitoring requires a special focus for almost all vehicles equipped with Diesel engines in future. Furthermore, the discrepancy between test cycle and “real world” consumption in passenger car applications is a concern of vehicle users and authorities worldwide. For the application in trucks and other commercial vehicles (e.g. off-highway and agricultural machines), consumption under real world payload conditions is a major factor for business success of cargo companies and other commercial vehicle users. As a result, fuel consumption in most Diesel engine applications needs to be improved further, leading to drastically increased development efforts compared to the past decade of development.