A European Regulatory Perspective towards a Euro 7 Proposal 2022-37-0032

The implementation of emission standards has brought significant reductions in vehicle emissions in the EU, but road transport is still a major source of air pollution. Future emission standards will aim at making road vehicles as clean as possible under a wide range of driving conditions and throughout their complete lifetime. The current paper presents the methodology followed by the Consortium for ultra LOw Vehicle Emissions (CLOVE) to support the preparation of the Euro 7 proposal.

As a first step, the emission performance of the latest-technology vehicles under various driving conditions was evaluated. Towards this direction, an emissions database was developed, containing data from a wide range of tests, both within and beyond the current RDE boundaries. The results revealed that harsh accelerations, extreme ambient temperatures, very short trips (particularly at urban conditions), DPF regeneration and uphill driving, or combination of those conditions, can result to high emissions. Next, suitable technology packages to address such high emissions were defined and evaluated, using simulation models. On top of this analysis, additional elements were assessed, namely on-board emissions monitoring, additional species to be regulated and instrumentation for future on-road emission testing.

The overall analysis revealed that existing state-of-the-art emission control technologies can achieve very low emission levels, but not under all driving conditions. Thus, additional improvements and potential new technologies are needed to bring ultra-low emissions. These technologies include larger exhaust aftertreatment devices, optimized engine and aftertreatment thermal management (mainly during cold-start) and further penetration of electrification. Particularly the latter is heavily enforced by the CO₂-related measures and can strongly support the limitation of pollutant emissions, as well.