Evaluation of Fuel Consumption and Exhaust Emission Levels from a EURO-IV Vehicle for Real-World Driving in Mexico City

The present work evaluated the performance of a EURO-IV vehicle for real-world driving in Mexico City. This work also attempted to identify if it was possible to reduce green house gas emission and fuel consumption for real-world driving in Mexico City by using vehicle technology available in EURO-IV certified vehicles. It used three different drive cycles representing typical driving conditions in North, South and Central zones of Mexico City. These drive cycles were developed using a single instrumented-experimental vehicle and the data collected from 200 trips over a year covering peak and off-peak driving conditions. This work used a vehicle-powertrain model of a EURO-IV vehicle, which was validated by the authors using experimental data for four other drive cycles that represented typical driving conditions in the United Kingdom. The present work identified that a fully warmed up EURO-IV vehicle driven in Mexico City will produce significantly lower CO₂ emission levels than if the same vehicle was tested using the European (ECE15+EUDC) drive cycle. The benefit in fuel consumption is also highly significant. Other environmental benefits such as levels of tailpipe-out carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen emissions were also evaluated.