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In recent years, automobile emission limits have been tightened world wide. PZEV (Partial Zero Emission Vehicle) which is the most stringent regulation has been imposed in California. To meet the strict PZEV regulation, automotive manufacturers are requesting the catalyst system to have quick light-off characteristics and excellent steady state performance with limited precious group metals (PGM) usage due to the strong price pressure. Moreover, the catalyst can not use high cell density substrate for increasing geometric surface area and reducing heat mass, since the backpressure of exhaust system must be decreased to improve the vehicle power for the PZEV application. This paper will present an efficient catalyst formulation that has been designed to maximize the performance with considerably reduce PGM loading. The catalyst washcoat has been optimized by improving the catalyst geometric surface area, gas diffusivity and thermal mass.

A new 2.4 L, i-VTEC 4-cylinder direct injection gasoline engine which achieved both low CO₂ emissions performance and high power was developed as a next-generation Honda engine series. This new engine applied a direct injection system with high-pressure multi-hole injectors. The inlet head port and combustion chamber shapes, injector spray pattern, and fuel injection control have been optimized to achieve homogeneous mixture for stable and highly efficient combustion. Friction was also reduced by adopting new engine structure. As a result, both the power and torque was increased by up to 10%, fuel consumption was improved by 5%. A 2013 year model ACCORD, which is equipped with this new engine, a highly efficient CVT transmission, and chassis improvement, achieved 11% improvement in label combined fuel economy and the Partial credit Zero Emission Vehicle (PZEV) level of low emissions in CARB emissions regulations.