EC urged to take a holistic view on CO2 emissions

The European Commission must not be drawn into the trap of regulating CO₂ emissions from commercial vehicle operations by merely measuring the exhaust output of individual engines, Martin Lundstedt (pictured), chairman of Volvo Group, said.

Mr Lundstedt was speaking in his capacity as chairman of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association’s (ACEA) commercial vehicle board, at the opening of the IAA show in Germany last month.

He pointed out that the Commission had developed a computer simulation called VECTO which could model CO₂ emissions from a wide variety of truck, trailer and bodywork configurations using various heavy-duty work cycles.

Mr Lunstedt admitted that data produced by testing an engine on a single work cycle might seem like a simple solution, but the reality was that it did not reflect the tailor-made nature of trucks and buses, or the diverse work that vehicles sharing the same engine but undertaking different tasks undertook.

“Using VECTO data, the EU legislation on the certification of CO₂ from trucks will require a declaration of CO₂ values for each vehicle produced for the EU market, providing a credible standardised way of comparing fuel efficiency across all brands,” he said.

Mr Lundstedt introduced ITS4CV, a study in the role of Intelligent Transport Systems in reducing CO₂ emissions and increasing the safety of heavy goods vehicles, buses and coaches that had been funded by ICEA and produced by Andrew Winder of ERTICO-ITS Europe, a Brussels-based partnership of around 120 companies and organisations involved in intelligent transport system development and production.

It argues for the potential of using ITS to reduce CO₂ emissions from road transport by focusing of factory beyond the vehicle, highlighting the potential of recent developments including eco-driving support by actively coaching drivers on rural roads, where truck CO₂ savings of 7-10 per cent could be achieved.

Eco-routing to help avoid congestion could save between four and 12 per cent CO₂ in urban conditions, and truck platooning could see following vehicles making savings of between seven and 16 per cent. Savings for the lead vehicle were less: ranging from one to eight per cent.

However, the most promising solutions were infrastructure or back-office based and included phasing traffic lights to give extra ‘green’ time to selected trucks and buses, which could typically save five per cent CO₂.

Delivery space booking could reduce CO₂ by as much as 20 per cent in the immediate vicinity of the drop, and between five and 10 per cent for the urban journey as a whole.

Intelligent truck parking, where spaces are prebooked for overnight stops, could save two per cent CO₂ on long-haul journeys.

Entry ramp monitoring, where trucks were given extra time to join motorways on metered ramps, could reduce CO₂ by 14 to 17 per cent on the entry to the motorway itself and five per cent overall in the surrounding road network.

On large fleets, driver behaviour and CO₂ footprint monitoring could bring CO₂ savings of around nine per cent (actual savings varied between four and 15 per cent).

Most of these measures would also improve traffic safety.