Fuel economy has become of major interest due to increasingly stringent emissions and fuel consumption regulations and its impacts on vehicle taxation.
In addition, end-user awareness of the fuel-efficiency increases market pressure for the application of fuel-efficient technologies. It represents lower lifetime operation costs combined with the maintenance of performance, safety and driving comfort.
OEM's solution alternatives range from the optimization of current internal combustion engine (ICE) technologies until the complete electrification of vehicle powertrain. Although ICE continues to be the most likely dominant technology for the next years, depending on future emission regulations and implementation timing demand for the next decades, it's still uncertain which technology will finally prevail.
Conventional ICE technologies have still significant room in terms of emission reduction potential, and OEMs would need to implement multiple technologies simultaneously to meet future emission targets.
Thermal management technologies on engine cooling and air conditioning systems play a significant role to support initiatives towards the fulfillment of the targets. Technologies of both fields will be presented on this paper, with bench and vehicle test results, showing how each individual performance characteristic can help on supporting fuel/emission reduction targets.