In recent years fuel consumption of passenger vehicles has received increasing attention by customers, the automotive industry, regulatory agencies and academia. However, some areas which affect the fuel consumption have received relatively small interest. One of these areas is the total energy used for vehicle interior climate which can have a large effect on real-world fuel consumption. Although there are several methods described in the literature for analyzing fuel consumption for parts of the climate control system, especially the Air-Condition (AC) system, the total fuel consumption including the vehicle interior climate has often been ignored, both in complete vehicle testing and simulation. The purpose of this research was to develop a model that predicts the total energy use for the vehicle interior climate. To predict the total energy use the model included sub models of the passenger compartment, the air-handling unit, the AC, the engine cooling system and the engine. Verification of the model was carried out against several complete vehicle tests using the new European driving cycle (NEDC) with different ambient temperatures ranging from −18°C to 43°C, different thermal states such as heat up or steady state and different sun loads. The agreement between simulation and measurement was demonstrated to be good for all compared properties except the compressor mechanical load. This research shows that it is possible to create a model that predicts the total energy use for vehicle interior climate for a wide range of different conditions.
