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With the increasing focus on reducing CO2 emissions to combat global warming and climate change, the automotive industry is exploring near zero-emission alternative fuels to replace traditional fossil-based fuels like diesel, gasoline, and CNG. Methanol is a promising alternative fuel that is being evaluated in India due to its easy transportation and storage, as well as its production scalability and availability potential. This study focuses on the retro-fitment solution of M100 (pure methanol) SI port-fuel injection (PFI) mode of combustion. A heavy duty single-cylinder engine test setup was used to assess methanol SI combustion characteristic. Lean operation strategy has been investigated. At lean mixture conditions a significant drop in NOX and CO emissions was achieved. The fuel injection techniques and the impact of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on the conventional stoichiometric combustion process is highlighted.

Climate change and global warming are one of the major challenges faced by the world today. A significant number of Indian cities rank among the most polluted globally, with vehicular emissions being the primary contributor. To address this issue, the Government of India is actively advocating for the adoption of zero-emission vehicles such as electric vehicles through policies and initiatives like FAME II [1], PMP and the National Mission for Transformative Mobility and Storage. The acceptance of electric vehicles is growing in the Indian market seeing more than 200% increase in sales in the year 2022 compared to 2021 with a large share of 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers and compact cars getting electrified. Further adoption of electrification on a much larger scale currently faces the major challenge of high overall vehicle cost compared to conventional vehicles, with the major contribution coming from the HV battery which is the costliest system on the electric vehicles.

Indian cities are among the most polluted in the world. The transportation sector is one of the major sources of gaseous pollutants. In recent years, also the effects of climate change and global warming have been felt across the globe. India has therefore committed at the CoP26 summit in 2021 to reduce its CO2 emissions by 45% till the year 2030. The Indian automotive sector is already addressing the problem with implementation of the Stage 2 BS VI norms, CAFÉ & Stage V standards and pursuing rapid electrification with application of zero emission vehicles. India also has the largest rail network of Asia, and a significant proportion of greenhouse gases is emitted by this sector. Deployment of zero emission fuel cell trains would be one of the solutions to meet India’s emission reduction targets.

Many Indian cities are amongst the most polluted cities in the world. Transport sector is identified as one of the major contributors to air pollution. Following the global trend, Government of India is also promoting near zero emission fuels with zero CO2 emissions as a way forward to solve the emission problems. With its policies like Green Hydrogen Mission, government of India plans to accelerate the adoption of Hydrogen as a fuel in the country. These initiatives have created a breakthrough in development of Hydrogen ICEs by the Indian OEM’s. Hydrogen ICE have only NOx emissions as the most prominent engine out emissions. NOx emission in Hydrogen engines is very sensitive to operating lambda, where in, after a certain threshold lambda the emissions rise significantly. Therefore, the air management system plays a very important role in the hydrogen engine performance & NOx emissions. This study evaluates various air management system options for a heavy-duty Hydrogen engine.

Reducing vehicular noise has become a crucial step in product development to meet stringent legislation and improve passenger experience. Smaller vehicles like three-wheelers and compact cars are often powered by a single cylinder engine due to product cost, packaging and weight constraints. Unlike a multi-cylinder engine where cylinders fire one after another which helps to reduce noise levels by destructive interference of pressure waves, a single cylinder engine produces higher noise levels due to firing of a single cylinder. Intake and exhaust flow noise is one of the dominant sources of vehicular noise. This study focuses on using CAE tools to reduce intake and exhaust flow noise levels to meet target noise requirements. One dimensional (1-D) gas dynamics simulation provides a good trade-off between accuracy and run-time, allowing for evaluation of multiple design iterations with acceptable accuracy in a relatively short time frame.

Road transport is bound to play a major role in the imminent transition to green energy. India has pledged to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2070 at the COP26 [1] and is committed to have 30% electric vehicle (EV) sales by 2030 [2]. The Indian government is promoting fleet electrification through initiatives like FAME–II. India’s EV market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 90% between 2022 and 2030 [3]. With this projection combined with climate targets, comes an anticipated exponential rise in renewable energy contribution to the national power grid, accompanied by a huge transport-related demand for electricity. NITI Aayog – India’s public policy think tank – and the Ministry of Power are already looking into the expansion of EV charging infrastructure in India as part of smart grid implementation. The deployment of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology as an extension of the smart charging initiative is essential for a smooth transition to renewable energy.

The automotive trend is now days switching towards less weight, cost effective and power efficient powertrain. Consumer’s expectations from comfort and NVH point of view is rising day by day. The NVH performance of a powertrain is mainly affected by the powertrain mounting System. In design and development of a new vehicle, the mounting of the powertrain (engine-transmission assembly) receives special attention. The powertrain body is the major concentrated mass in the vehicle Which if not adequately confined and quarantined, it will result in poor NVH characteristics of powertrain. In this work a powertrain mounting System of three-cylinder engine, which is transversely mounted, is analyzed. A correlation between two different simulation techniques has been established. Passive mounts are being assessed throughout the investigation. A multi body simulation approach is employed for the modelling and simulation of powertrain mounting system.

Climate change is a global phenomenon now and countries across the globe are working towards reducing emissions by bringing in stricter legislations on emissions and CO2. India is also facing huge challenges on pollutions in large cities. Reports suggest that 7 of the 10 most polluted cities of the world lie in India. The growing public opinion towards cleaner air and reduced greenhouse gaseous emissions has sensitized the matter and has led to drafting of strict emission legislations in India during the past few years. The leap frogging from BS 4 to BS 6 in 2020 by skipping BS 5 norms showed the intent of the GOI towards emission reduction. The BS 6 legislation is not limiting to meeting norms with legislative emission cycle but will also focus from year 2023 onto real driving emissions on actual roads. GOI is also proposing to implement fleet CO2 emission norms (CAFÉ) by 2022 to regulate the CO2 emissions.

From April 2020 BS 6 phase 1 legislation has come into place in India. Further in the coming years from 2022 CAFÉ norms will be implemented targeting 122 g/km CO2 fleet emissions. Also, from year 2023 onwards BS 6 phase 2 emission legislation with RDE cycle will be in place. With the expensive exhaust after-treatment system needed for meeting BS 6 norms, the Diesel powertrain based vehicles cost has increased further creating even further price difference to it’s Gasoline fuel variants. Additionally, the price difference between Diesel and Gasoline fuel is always reducing. These reasons have changed the buying pattern of passenger cars in India, with vehicle powered by engine<1.5 L displacements have gradually shifted predominantly to Gasoline powertrain. The impact of this will further stress the fleet CO2 emissions for manufacturers.

With the rising pollutant emission level in Indian cities, the focus on pure BEVs is also increasing in India. Therefore, the Indian Government is currently preparing suitable policies to promote the acceptance of BEVs (e.g., FAME-2) [1]. The goal is to provide subsidies and develop the required infrastructure for battery charging. The environmental conditions in India differ significantly from those in other developed countries in Europe or China. The maximum temperatures can rise to 55 °C in the summertime [2]. In winter, temperatures in the northern Himalayan regions can fall below -25 °C [3]. Within this wide range of environmental conditions, all components, such as the electric motor and battery, must be conditioned by the thermal system of the vehicle. On the one hand, HV battery packs are one of the main cost drivers. On the other hand, currently, the battery size must be maximized to improve the driving range and ensure customer acceptance.

Noise & Vibration refinement of automotive vehicles is becoming important parameter due to its influence on environmental aspect and comfort perceived by occupants. NVH parameters are driving factors in current vehicle design strategy. Drivers comfort is extremely important, and driver’s expectations from commercial and heavy-duty trucks are as good as refined passenger cars. Other trends in commercial vehicle segment such as engine downsizing, weight, cost reduction and meeting stringent emission norms have influenced vehicle design dynamics. These parameters are critical and often contribute to vehicle NVH issues. Considering these new trends in commercial vehicle segment, it becomes challenging for an NVH engineer to provide optimized solutions. NVH issues could be related to the various subsystems such as driveline, axle, transmission steering wheel etc. in the vehicle and its resonant frequencies.

Vehicles are one of the main sources of pollution in India, which produce substantial amount of pollutants. Gaseous pollutants are reason for major health problems; hence emission legislations are becoming increasingly stringent all over the world. India is also following the global trend of migrating in the Off-highway segment from Trem IIIA to Stage V legislation by 2024. This legislation change is calling for technological upgrade of all existing engines. EGR has been successfully proved as a useful technology to reduce NOx by decreasing the oxygen concentration and the peak temperature of the combustion. Due to compact design and space restriction, the distance required for the homogeneous mixing of fresh air and EGR is not enough. Therefore, the mixing of the EGR and distribution of the EGR over the cylinders may not be equal.

Legislations on vehicular noise levels are becoming stringent day by day. Also the customer expectations on the vehicle noise levels has also become more refined in the India market. Intake and exhaust flow noise levels are one of the major contributors to this overall noise level of the vehicle. These drivers have led the Indian automobile manufacturers to focus on engine and vehicle noise optimization. The 3-wheeler and 4-wheeler Quadra-cycle vehicles which are powered by single cylinder engines are more prone to high noise levels due to pulsating intake and exhaust flow dynamics caused by single firing cylinder. The study focuses on the exhaust muffler design optimization of a single cylinder engine powertrain to meet the targeted noise levels. One - Dimensional (1D) Simulation tools give significant information at the system level and reduce the time required for analysis and optimization compared to the three - dimensional (3D) CFD tools.

In the era of sustainable engines where the need of high power, torque, engine life is increasing while eliminating BSFC and emission concerns, the variable length intake manifold system helps to provide optimized intake system. The research consists of adopting continuous variable length intake manifold on diesel engines where compression and suction waves provide better swirl and pressurization methodology. The continuous varying intake manifold helps to provide better volumetric efficiency by more than 100% as constructive waves provide improved swirling which leads to reducing detonation and better combustion. The manifold path changes with every range of rpm through operating butterfly valve, which also guides air intake path according to engine load. The air flow is increased at low rpm bypassing the intake air from the long and narrow path to increase low-speed torque.

The vehicular pollution and emission levels are alarmingly increasing in India. The metro and urban cities are worst hit by the gaseous and particulate emissions produced by internal combustion engine powered vehicles. Following the trend from other developed countries, Government of India (GOI) has decided to migrate from existing BS IV legislation directly to BS VI legislation from April 2020 all across India. This migration in emission legislation took almost 10 years to be implemented in European Union (EU) countries. However, for India, the targeted implementation time is just 3 years, making it an uphill challenge for all the vehicle manufacturers. City bus is one such applications, which run mostly within the city and currently are powered by conventional Diesel engines. The vehicle manufacturers should focus on finding an optimized solution for meeting the future emission legislation in true sense.

This paper presents the FEV low cost EV platform intended to provide a modular and scalable platform for 2 and 3 wheelers that is robust and meets the desired performance characteristics. To enable this, we use a dedicated vehicle control unit (VCU) that is running FEV’s matured model library called PERSIST. The platform makes use of the inherent advantage of being a small scale vehicle that can be used with lower sized components or reduced set of components without compromising on safety. The electric vehicle platform will have modularly developed components and associated software and hardware with standardized interfaces. The electric power train includes support for standardized lithium ion batteries and a low cost vehicle control unit. This is required to not only safe guard the system overall but also be able to optimize the driving range, enhance drivability and to provide the driver with a more stable and secure interface for operating the vehicle.

The transportation needs in highly dense urban pockets is leading to high pollution islands in India. To address this issue, the emission legislations are becoming more stringent with an aim to reduce the emissions at national level. App based taxis are becoming lifeline for all major Indian cities. So far, these taxis are predominantly diesel powered compact cars. Thus, vehicle powertrain electrification is a good idea to improve local air quality in such urban pockets. While upgradation of internal combustion engines will add significant costs due to expensive exhaust after-treatment systems, electric motor driven taxis can be the ideal solution for emission reduction, as their operation is completely free of local pollutant emissions. However, the currently available electric vehicles are more expensive than the internal combustion engine powered counterparts.

Challenging limits for NOx in BS VI emission legislation demand high performance conversion techniques. Exhaust after treatment systems such as Lean NOx Trap and selective catalytic reduction can provide effective reduction of Engine out NOx emissions. From the moment of engine start, these systems require reliable signal input of the NOx sensor. The efficient use of such DeNOx systems demands earliest possible activation of the upstream NOx sensor. However, attainment of the sensor dew point delays reliable measurements. Data collected from the emission test cycles, WLTC and NEDC indicates the unavailability of NOx sensor from the beginning of the test cycle. Hence, requirement of a NOx model is inevitable to estimate NOx emissions till sensor reaches its dew point. The scope of this paper is to elucidate the calibration process through which a robust estimation of the NOx emissions can be made in different engine modes along with varying ambient conditions.

The fuel consumption of combustion engines requires continuous reduction to meet future CO2 fleet targets. The progression of emission legislations shifted the focus on PN and NOX emissions in real world driving scenarios (RDE). Recently, the monitoring of CO emissions puts high load fuel enrichment for component protection into focus and a ban on enrichment is widely expected. Hence, gasoline engine technologies, which enable Lambda 1 operation in the entire engine map are specifically promoted. Variable Compression Ratio (VCR) attacks all these topics already at the combustion process. In addition to the well-known CO2 capability, VCR also enables enlargement of the lambda 1 operation in gasoline engines as well as reduced NOX emissions in diesel engines. The basic principle of developed VCR solution is to change the effective length of the connecting rod (and thereby the compression ratio) in two stages by several millimeters.

The legislations on emission reduction is getting stringent everywhere in the world. India is following the same trend, with Government of India (GOI) declaring the nationwide implementation of BS 6 legislation by April 2020 and Real Driving Emission (RDE) Cycle relevant legislation by 2023. Additionally GOI is focusing on reduction of CO2 emissions by introduction of stringent fleet CO2 targets through CAFE regulation, making it mandatory for vehicle manufacturers to simultaneously work on gaseous emissions and CO2 emissions. Simultaneous NOx emission reduction and CO2 reduction measures are divergent in nature, but with a 48 V Diesel hybrid, this goal can be achieved. The study presented here involves arriving at the right future hybrid-powertrain layout for a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) in the Indian scenario to meet the future BS 6 and CAFÉ legislations. Diesel engines dominate the current LCV and SUV segments in India and the same trend can be expected to continue in future.