The Impact of Vehicle Technology, Size Class, and Driving Style on the GHG and Pollutant Emissions of Passenger Cars

Martin Opetnik, Stefan Hausberger (), Claus Uwe Matzer, Silke Lipp, Lukas Landl, Konstantin Weller and Miriam Elser
Additional contact information
Martin Opetnik: Institute of Thermodynamics and Sustainable Propulsion Systems, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria
Stefan Hausberger: Institute of Thermodynamics and Sustainable Propulsion Systems, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria
Claus Uwe Matzer: Institute of Thermodynamics and Sustainable Propulsion Systems, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria
Silke Lipp: Forschungsgesellschaft für Verbrennungskraftmaschinen und Thermodynamik mbH, 8010 Graz, Austria
Lukas Landl: Institute of Thermodynamics and Sustainable Propulsion Systems, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria
Konstantin Weller: Forschungsgesellschaft für Verbrennungskraftmaschinen und Thermodynamik mbH, 8010 Graz, Austria
Miriam Elser: Chemical Energy Carriers and Vehicle Systems Laboratory, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 9, 1-26

Abstract: Although technical improvements to engines and aftertreatment systems have the greatest impact on pollutant emissions, there is also potential for reducing emissions through driver behavior. This potential can be realized in the very short term, while better emission-control technologies only take effect once they have penetrated the market. In addition to a change in driving style, the vehicle owner’s choice of vehicle technology and size class will also have an impact on the future emissions of the vehicle fleet. The effects of different driving styles, the tire choice, the vehicle size class, and propulsion technologies on energy consumption and tailpipe and non-exhaust emissions are analyzed in this paper for different traffic situations and start temperatures for cars with petrol and diesel combustion engines and for battery electric vehicles. The analysis is completed with the corresponding upstream emissions from fuel and electricity production. The analysis is based on a vehicle simulation using the Passenger car and Heavy-duty Emission Model ( PHEM ), which is based on a large database of vehicles created using measurements of real driving conditions. For the assessment of the driving style, a novel method was developed in an H2020 project, which reproduces a measured trip with a virtual eco-driver. Carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (CO 2eq ) increase with increasing vehicle size, but can be reduced by around 20% for conventional vehicles and 17% for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) through an environmentally conscious driving style. On average, BEVs have around 50% lower CO 2eq emissions than conventional vehicles, if the emissions from vehicle production are also taken into account. On an average journey of 35 km, the cold start of modern diesel vehicles accounts for around half of the total NO x emissions, while the proportion of cold starts for petrol vehicles is around 25%. Tire and brake wear together generate a similar amount of PN23 emissions as the exhaust gases from new cars.

Keywords: CO 2 emissions; energy consumption; NO x; PN; non-exhaust emissions; cold start; driving style; passenger cars (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: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/9/2052/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/9/2052/ (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:17:y:2024:i:9:p:2052-:d:1383249

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 ().