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Energy consumption and exhaust emissions are the most challenging issues in transportation that car makers and policy makers have to deal with. As a consequence, several technologies have been developed in order to limit fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. So far, some of the promising technologies for passenger cars are hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and, later on, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). The study presents an assessment in terms of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions for gasoline HEV and PHEV compared to Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles. This comparison intends to assess carbon dioxide and energy consumption reduction ability of PHEV for several countries or geographical region (EU 15, USA, Japan, and France). The energy consumption is computed with a detailed drive train model taking into account different driving patterns.

External Control Compressors (ECC) with variable displacement are available on the market and permit to create smart control system, taking into account both cooling needs of the cabin and the engine running speed. With a limited number of sensors it is possible to create new algorithms to control the refrigerant mass flow rate. The paper presents a reference line of a mobile air-conditioning system using a variable displacement compressor and the improvement associated with the new control system. The tests have been performed according to the European regulatory reference cycle in order to measure fuel consumption of vehicles taking into account both urban and extra-urban cycles. It is essential to analyze mobile air-conditioning systems energy performances, referred to realistic conditions taking into account the quick variations of engine speed during various driving cycles.