Performance and Efficiency Trade-Offs in Brazilian Passenger Vehicle Fleet

Rafael Fernandes Mosquim and Carlos Eduardo Keutenedjian Mady
Additional contact information
Rafael Fernandes Mosquim: School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-970, Brazil
Carlos Eduardo Keutenedjian Mady: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Centro Universitário FEI, São Bernardo do Campo 09850-901, Brazil

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 15, 1-22

Abstract: The rate of technological progress is an important metric used for predicting the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of future light-duty fleets. A trade-off between efficiency and performance is essential due to its implications on fuel consumption and efficiency improvement. These values are not directly available in the Brazilian fleet. Hence, this is the main gap in knowledge that has to be overcome. Tendencies in all relevant parameters were also unknown, and we have traced them as well, established on several publications data and models. We estimate the three indicators mentioned above for the Brazilian fleet from 1990 to 2020. Although the rate of technological progress was lower in Brazil than that in developed countries, it has increased from 0.39% to 0.61% to 1.7% to 1.9% in subsequent decades. Performance improvements offset approximately 31% to 39% of these efficiency gains. Moreover, the vehicle market is shifting toward larger vehicles, thus offsetting some efficiency improvements. We predict the fleet fuel efficiency for the years 2030 and 2035 using the above-mentioned factors. The predicted values for efficiency can vary by a factor of two. Thus, trade-off policies play a vital role in steering toward the desired goals of reducing the transportation sector’s impact on the environment.

Keywords: energy efficiency; light-vehicle; transportation sector; sustainability; trade-offs and vehicle performance; possible future scenarios (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/15/5416/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/15/5416/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:15:p:5416-:d:872750

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().