Browse Topic: Low emission vehicles (LEV) and zero emission vehicles (ZEV)
Why precision engineering is defining confidence in next-generation internal combustion engines. In 2026, the global transport industry, and particularly the automotive industry, finds itself under competing pressures. Regulators are tightening emissions standards, with new regulations such as the EU's Euro 7 being proposed to reduce air pollution in line with net-zero ambitions. Fleet operators are managing ever-aging vehicle populations in uncertain economic conditions, and policymakers are accelerating mandates for sustainable fuels, with countries like the UK moving forward with a Zero Emission Vehicle mandate by 2035. Across passenger vehicles, commercial transport, and off-highway machinery, engineers are now tasked with delivering measurable carbon reduction using a combination of electrification, advanced internal combustion engines (ICE) and fuel innovation without compromising safety, durability or performance.
The US trucking industry heavily relies on the diesel powertrain, and the transition towards zero-emission vehicles, such as battery electric vehicles (BEV) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV), is happening at a slow pace. This makes it difficult for truck manufacturers to meet the Phase 3 Greenhouse Gas standards, which mandate substantial emissions reductions across commercial vehicle classes beginning of 2027. This challenging situation compels manufacturers to further optimize the powertrain to meet stringent emissions requirements, which might not account for customer application specifics may not translate to a better total cost of ownership (TCO) for the customer. This study uses a simulation-based approach to connect customer applications and regulatory categories across various sectors. The goal is to develop a methodology that helps identify the overlap between optimizing for customer applications vs optimizing to meet regulations. To use a data-driven approach, a real-world customer usage pattern analysis was conducted to identify key performance metrics required to optimize driveline components. Additionally, the impact of certification requirements on vehicle performance is examined to ensure compliance while maximizing the benefits of the proposed optimization strategies. The findings of this research will provide valuable insights for manufacturers, enabling the development of trucks that are not only efficient and high-performing but also compliant with environmental standards, ultimately leading to a more sustainable future in the trucking industry.
Letter from the Guest Editors
Letter from the Guest Editors
Thermal management is critical for modern vehicles, particularly for Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs), where maintaining optimal temperature ranges directly influences thermal system efficiency and vehicle range. Accurate prediction of underhood airflow behavior is essential for effective thermal management and also to estimate overall energy consumption by cooling system, with air-side dynamics playing a pivotal role in heat transfer over the heat exchangers of cooling package. Simulation tools like GT-Suite are indispensable for this purpose, enabling engineers to evaluate complex thermal interactions without the cost and time constraints of extensive physical testing. While 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models offer detailed insights into flow characteristics, they are computationally expensive and time consuming. In contrast, 1D models provide faster simulation times, making them ideal for system-level analysis and iterative design processes. However, 1D models inherently lack the ability to capture detailed flow phenomena, which can compromise the accuracy of thermal predictions. To mitigate this, calibration using 3D CFD data or experimental measurements becomes critical, ensuring that air-side behavior is represented as accurately as possible. One of the key challenges in this calibration process arises at low fan speeds, where matching flow rates becomes difficult due to the unavailability of windmilling data. Along with calibration of normal operating conditions, this paper also presents a methodology for tuning fan maps under such constraints, focusing on strategies to enhance model fidelity and novel methodology to calculate fan mechanical power. We explore simulation-based techniques, leveraging steady-state operating conditions to refine fan characteristics. The study further discusses sensitivity analysis, validation strategies, and potential inaccuracies introduced by missing windmilling effects and method to accurately fill in the missing fan map data. The proposed methodology ensures improved predictive accuracy of underhood airflow behavior, enhancing thermal system design for automotive applications. This method improves the reliability of underhood airflow predictions, ultimately contributing to more accurate thermal management system predictions out of digital tools.
Zero emission vehicles are essential for achieving sustainable and clean transportation. Hybrid vehicles such as Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) use multiple energy sources like batteries and fuel cell stacks to offer extended driving range without emitting greenhouse gases. Optimal performance and extended life of the important components like the high voltage battery and fuel-cell stack go a long way in achieving cost benefits as well as environmental safety. For this, energy management in FCEVs, particularly thermal management, is crucial for maintaining the temperature of these components within their specified range. The fuel cell stack generates a significant amount of waste heat, which needs to be dissipated to maintain optimal performance and prevent degradation, whereas the battery system needs to be operated within an optimal temperature range for its better performance and longevity. Overheating of batteries can lead to reduced efficiency and potential safety hazards, while low temperatures can decrease battery performance and range. The multiple temperature control loops in the thermal system design of the current FCEVs require significant energy for continuous heating and cooling. This is due to the fact that each of them exchanges energy directly with an external source or sink without redistributing energy among themselves. This can lead to energy losses during the heat exchange process. Our goal is to optimize thermal energy usage while maintaining the same performance and efficiency of both battery electric system and the fuel cell stack in a vehicle. In this paper, an analysis of thermal energy utilization of a single system is compared to the exchange of thermal energy across multiple systems, considering various heating and cooling scenarios. We compare our proposed strategy (with redistribution) with the existing strategy (without redistribution) quantitatively with respect to controller effort/ energy spent in achieving thermal target.
Recently, global interest in hydrogen as a powerful, promising and clean source of energy has increased. Green hydrogen production (GHP) is considered one of the most important modern projects worldwide, as it is the way to achieve a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. GHP plays a major role to improve public health. There are several methods for producing or harvesting green hydrogen, the most famous of which are: 1) The electrolysis of water using a proton exchange membrane and metal foam at low temperatures and 2) Flash Joule Heating (FJH) method for heating plastic waste at high temperatures using low-carbon emissions technology. However, both methods still suffer from some difficulties. This calls for the need to search for scientific solutions to make hydrogen available at reasonable prices. While the first method is considered better for producing high-purity hydrogen compared to the second method, it faces challenges in collecting hydrogen on the surface of the negative electrode (cathode) in a suitable manner (catalyst) to collect it in a less expensive way. While the second method is considered the cheapest, but it is complex and requires very high temperatures to produce graphene with hydrogen harvesting. Graphene can be used in the manufacture of digital processors, electronic cells and conductors. Green hydrogen is used sparingly in some applications such as automotive research and some metallurgical and chemical industries. The paper focused on monitoring and understanding the current situation and challenges to provide proposed solutions for enhancing hydrogen production based on advanced engineering materials and metrology techniques. These solutions aim to develop the cathode material and its surface in the first method. Furthermore, the use of SEM and AFM in both methods was proposed to improve the characterization process of both the cathode material with its surface and GHP. Adopting such approach is essential to contribute for reducing the costs of GHP with the aim of providing clean and sustainable energy, in addition to enhancing the role of doctors in performing their medical duties towards raising the level of health awareness of community members and maximizing the treatment and recovery of patients in a healthy environment.
There is great recognition regarding the importance of hydrogen as an energy route for the decarbonization of road vehicles. Several countries are making large investments to create products, services, and infrastructures that allow hydrogen to be used as a clean source for propulsion, but there are still many open questions. This complete hydrogen chain involves production, transformation, transport, storage, and use. Although many initiatives are seeking global production, the use of low-carbon hydrogen is not yet economically competitive. Therefore, for this industry to establish itself, and acknowledging the characteristics of each region, there needs to be more intense coordination of efforts between the different industrial and political segments. Low-carbon Hydrogen Use Across Economic Sectors and Global Regions establishes premises for the hydrogen economy and its main environmental aspects. It also includes proposals and scenarios to establish a strategy that relates to production, transport, and application with a focus on global integration. Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio.
Hydrogen is considered one of the most promising clean energy sources. Hydrogen fuel cells offer high energy conversion efficiency and zero emissions. But the development of hydrogen fuel cells faces many challenges, including the issue of carbon-monoxide (CO) poisoning of the fuel cell electrodes.
The societies around the world remain far from meeting the agreed primary goal outlined under the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change: reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to keep global average temperature rise to well below 20°C by 2100 and making every effort to stay underneath of a 1.5°C elevation. In 2020 direct tailpipe emissions from transport represented around 8 GtCO2eq, or nearly 15% of total emissions. This number increases to just under 10 GtCO2eq when indirect emissions from electricity and fuel supply are added, for a total share of roughly 18%. Following the current trend, direct and indirect emissions in transport could reach above 11 GtCO2eq by 2050. Roughly 76% of transport emissions are related to land-based passenger and freight road transport. Emissions from aviation and shipping account for the remaining 24% of 2020 emissions. Hydrogen (H2) is in this scenario considered to play a key role as a carbon-free and versatile energy carrier. Combustion of hydrogen in an ICE offers the potential to accelerate the introduction of carbon-neutral mobility in the short to medium term at competitive cost due to the utilization of well-proven and mature technology elements. Given the high technological maturity of internal combustion engines (ICEs), there is an increasing interest in ICEs powered by hydrogen as a CO2-free solution for on- and off-road vehicles as well as construction equipment. All along the development, the objectives were set to develop the right technological combination that offers power, torque, and transient response comparable to current diesel engine. The results shown demonstrate the great potentials of the hydrogen engine technology. The engine KPI are matching the ones from the diesel base engine while offering near-zero emission concept thanks to the alignment of engine control and aftertreatment system calibration.
The global transportation industry, and road freight in particular, faces formidable challenges in reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions; both Europe and the US have already enabled legislation with CO2 / GHG reduction targets. In Europe, targets are set on a fleet level basis: a CO2 baseline has already been established using Heavy Duty Vehicle (HDV) data collected and analyzed by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in 2019/2020. This baseline data has been published as the reference for the required CO2 reductions. More recently, the EU has proposed a Zero Emissions Vehicle definition of 3g CO2/t-km. The Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) designation is expected to be key to a number of market instruments that improve the economics and practicality of hydrogen trucks. This paper assesses the permissible amount of carbon-based fuel in hydrogen fueled vehicles – the Pilot Energy Ratio (PER) – for each regulated subgroup of HDVs in the baseline data set. The analysis indicates that a PER of ~4% is required to address the key long-haul groups (5LH, 9LH and 10LH) and potentially some Regional Distribution vehicles, but that much lower PERs are required for most of the Regional and Urban Delivery vehicles in this group. The assessment then looks at the impact of the actual vehicle configuration and identifies features impacting the PER such as rear axle ratio; for example, an engine may be capable of meeting the Zero Emissions requirement, but rear axle ratios greater than 3 may still cause a specific vehicle configuration to exceed 3g/t-km of CO2. The paper concludes by assessing the existing technology options to meet the ZEV requirements and the current state of these technologies against the required PER target.
Rooftop solar panels will soon power about 90% of PFG's Gilroy, California, operations, a starting point for cold food deliveries. The vehicles getting the various edibles and food-related products from the warehouse to restaurants, schools, hotels and other customers include new battery-electric Class 8 trucks that mate to trailers fitted with zero-emission transport refrigeration units (TRUs). “Our Gilroy, California, location is the pilot for how we intend to develop sustainable distribution centers,” said Jeff Williamson, senior vice president of operations for Richmond, Virginia-headquartered Performance Food Group (PFG). Williamson and others were recently interviewed by SAE Media following an Earth Day open house at the Gilroy site.
Low-carbon fuels promise greener alternatives, but can they deliver? Even as electric vehicles dominate today's alternative powertrain market for passenger cars, the future of how we will all someday drive without burning petroleum is cloudier than ever. To decarbonize transportation, governments and companies around the world are promoting various future technologies, including hydrogen and synthetic fuels, as alternatives to the alternative. In the U.S., the road to a hydrogen future recently hit a few road-blocks. In February 2024, Shell announced it would dramatically scale back its H2 refueling station plans in California and close some of its few stations. This dealt a blow to local H2-vehicle drivers as well as the state's plans for a robust hydrogen infrastructure. When Hyundai announced in October 2021 that it would support Shell's plans to add 48 additional H2 refueling stations in California, it said that “hydrogen refueling infrastructure growth is critical to rapidly increase consumer adoption of zero-emission fuel cell vehicles.”
On-board diagnostics (OBD) systems support the protection of the environment against harmful pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NOx), hydrocarbons (HC) and particulate matters (PM) emitted by combustion engines. OBD regulations require passenger cars and light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks to support a minimum set of diagnostic information to external (off-board) “generic” test equipment. For the purpose of communication, both the test equipment and the vehicle must support the same communication protocol stack. The communication protocol SAE J1979, also known as ISO 15031, that has been in use for decades will be replaced by SAE J1979-2 for vehicles with combustion engines and by SAE J1979-3 for zero-emission-vehicle (ZEV) propulsion systems.
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