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In the past two decades, rapidly expanding economy in China led to burst in travel demand and pursuit of quality of life. It further promoted the rapid growth of China's passenger car market. China had already become the largest vehicle sales country, exceeding the U.S. in 2010. By the end of 2018, there had been over 240 million cars in China, with over 200 million passenger cars. The surge of car ownership has also brought a series of problems, like traffic congestion, long commuting time, insufficient parking space, etc. Therefore, some local governments in China introduced vehicle purchase restriction policies to control the growth and gross of vehicle stock. Different cities issued different rules. Lottery and auction mechanisms both exist. There are also differences in classification and licensing of electric vehicles. However, with the recent slowdown of economic development, China's car sales began to decline in 2018, and the trend of 2019 is also not optimistic.

Natural gas quality, in terms of the volume fraction of higher hydrocarbons, strongly affects the auto-ignition characteristics of the air-fuel mixture, the engine performance and its controllability. The influence of natural gas composition on engine operation has been investigated both experimentally and through chemical kinetic based cycle simulation. A range of two component gas mixtures has been tested with methane as the base fuel. The equivalence ratio (0.3), the compression ratio (19.8), and the engine speed (1000 rpm) were held constant in order to isolate the impact of fuel autoignition chemistry. For each fuel mixture, the start of combustion was phased near top dead center (TDC) and then the inlet mixture temperature was reduced. These experimental results have been utilized as a source of data for the validation of a chemical kinetic based full-cycle simulation.

This paper discusses the compression ratio influence on maximum load of a Natural Gas HCCI engine. A modified Volvo TD100 truck engine is controlled in a closed-loop fashion by enriching the Natural Gas mixture with Hydrogen. The first section of the paper illustrates and discusses the potential of using hydrogen enrichment of natural gas to control combustion timing. Cylinder pressure is used as the feedback and the 50 percent burn angle is the controlled parameter. Full-cycle simulation is compared to some of the experimental data and then used to enhance some of the experimental observations dealing with ignition timing, thermal boundary conditions, emissions and how they affect engine stability and performance. High load issues common to HCCI are discussed in light of the inherent performance and emissions tradeoff and the disappearance of feasible operating space at high engine loads.

Compared with conventional vehicles, electric vehicles (EVs) offer the benefits of replacing petroleum consumption and reducing air pollutions. However, there have been controversies over greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of EVs from the life-cycle perspective in China’s coal-dominated power generation context. Besides, it is in doubt whether the cost-effectiveness of EVs in China exceeds other fuel-efficient vehicles considering the high prices. In this study, we compared the life-cycle GHG emissions of existing vehicle models in the market. Afterwards, a cost model is established to compare the total costs of vehicles. Finally, the cost-effectiveness of different vehicle types are compared. It is concluded that the GHG emission intensity of EVs is lower than reference and hybrid vehicles currently and is expected to decrease with the improvement of the power grid.

Electric vehicles maintain the fastest development in China and undertake the responsibility of optimizing energy consumption and carbon emission in the transportation field. However, from the entire life cycle point of view, although electric vehicles have a certain degree of energy consumption and carbon emission reduction in the use phase, they cause extra energy consumption and carbon emission in the manufacturing phase, which weakens the due environmental benefits to some extent. The recycling of electric vehicles can effectively address the issue and indirectly reduce the energy consumption and carbon emission in the manufacturing phase. China is setting up the recycling system and strengthening regulation force to achieve proper energy consumption and carbon emission reduction benefits of electric vehicles. Under the current electric vehicle recycling technologies, China can reduce about 34% of carbon emission in electric vehicle manufacturing phase.

A strategy to facilitate the mixture preparation process in PFI engines is to delay the Intake Valve Opening (IVO) by shifting the cam phasing so that the cylinder pressure is sub-atmospheric when the valve opens. The physics of the effect are discussed in terms of the pressure differential between the manifold and the cylinder, and the resulting flow and charge temperature history. The effect was evaluated by measuring the equivalence ratio of the trapped charge and the exhaust HC emissions in the first cycle of cranking in a 2.4L engine. When the IVO timing was changed from 18° BTDC to 21° ATDC, the in-cylinder fuel equivalence ratio increased by approximately 10%. This increase was attributed mainly to the enrichment of the charge by displacing the leaner mixture at the top of the cylinder in the period between BDC and IVC. The exhaust HC, however, increased by 40%. No conclusive explanation was established for this increase in HC emissions.

Hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is regarded as an important technology in solving the energy and environment crisis. In this paper, the HEV technology applied in passenger cars by major automotive OEMs such as Toyota, Honda, GM, Ford, Volkswagen, BMW are investigated. The configuration diagrams for each OEM are presented. Based on the architecture analysis, a classification is done according to similar structures and performances. Furthermore, a cost estimation methodology for HEV is presented based on the preliminary tear-down research done by Environment Protection Agency (EPA). Meanwhile, the logarithmic relationship between fuel consumption (FC) reduction and degree of hybridization (DOH) is discovered by investigating 30 different hybrid cars. Combining the cost estimation and relation between FC&DOH, the hybridization cost for cars to meet the FC regulations can be calculated.

Based on high EGR rate, the low temperature combustion (LTC) has been studied widely, of which the application range is more extensive than the homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) and premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI). As the high EGR rate would influence the condition of intake charge, it would also affect the combustion process and the HC emissions, thus the combustion stability of LTC would be lower than tradition diesel combustion. In this study, an ion current detecting technology was employed to explore the ion current at different EGR rates. Meanwhile, the combustion parameters were also investigated, which included the in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate. The CA50 and CAI50 were adopted as the phases of combustion and ion current, which respectively represented the crank angle of mid-point for the integrated heat release and integrated ion current. Then the correlation between CA50 and CAI50 was analysed.

Fuel cell vehicle and battery electric vehicle are two environmentally benign vehicle technology types possibly meeting the zero-emission regulations in the future. The premise is they can achieve parity with conventional vehicle both environmentally and economically. Besides, it is necessary to distinguish which technology is more suitable in China's current and future context. This paper compares their cost-effectiveness for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, examining the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of conventional gasoline vehicle, battery electric vehicle and fuel cell vehicle in China's energy context under three different scenarios. The results indicate that under the 500km drive range, fuel cell vehicles are less competitive than battery electric vehicles currently. Fuel cell vehicles generate much more greenhouse gas emissions than battery vehicles and conventional gasoline vehicles.

Both the economy and energy demand increase rapidly in China. The government is facing severe problems from energy security, carbon emissions and environmental issues. The past trends and future plans of energy will have great influence on the transportation, construction and industry development. This paper summarizes the present and future energy structure in China. Conventional fossil energy, nuclear energy and renewable energy are all included. Electricity will account for more proportion in total energy consumption in the future, and the structure of electricity will be cleaner. That will promote the development of electric vehicles and the transformation of China’s automotive industry. The optimization of energy structure will accelerate the low-carbon development in China. China’s energy development will enter a new stage from the expansion of total quantity to the upgrading of quality and efficiency.

The new technological revolution is promoting the intelligent upgrade of vehicles. Traditional vehicles are gradually developing into intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs). New features such as autonomous driving, smart cockpits, and Internet of Vehicle of ICVs have brought users safe, comfortable and interesting travel experiences. Vehicle software, containing a wealth of functions and continuously outputting valuable data, has become the core of the definition of vehicle functions. Traditional vehicle hardware has gradually decoupled from software and become standardized, modular and shared resources. At present, the era of Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) is coming soon, which is bound to bring subversive changes to both vehicle technologies and industrial ecologies. However, the lack of comprehensive understanding and the clear development way of SDV are ubiquitous in all kinds of corporations in vehicle industry. This will make them be caught off guard when SDV really comes.

The lightweight technology takes an important role in electric vehicle(EV) energy conservation domain, as lighter vehicle means less energy consumed under same condition. In this paper, the typical energy requirement in an NEDC cycle is investigated, and the relationship between lightweight rate and energy consumption reduction effectiveness is given. The benefit of lightweight to EV come from the less battery cost because of less energy requirement. For EVs, with less battery cost, a certain lightweight rate can be obtained with less total cost. On the other hand, if lightweight rate is very high, the battery cost won't be able to cover the lightweight cost. Besides, the relationship between driving range and battery capacity is discussed in this paper. It is found that there is a limitation of EV driving range, which is determined by the battery energy density.

Improving catalyst light-off characteristics during cold start and reducing engine-out (more accurately converter-in) emissions prior to catalyst light-off have been regarded as the keys to meeting future stringent emissions regulations. Many technologies and control strategies have been proposed, and some of them have already been incorporated into production, to address these issues. Among these, secondary air injection received a lot of attention. This study was initiated to investigate the thermal and chemical processes associated with secondary air injection inside the exhaust system in order to maximize the simultaneous benefit of improving catalyst light-off performance and reducing converter-in emissions. The effects of several design and operating parameters such as secondary air injection location, exhaust manifold design, spark timing, engine enrichment level, and secondary air flow rate were carefully examined.

During the last several years, significant efforts have been directed toward the development of ultra-clean, gasoline-powered vehicles in the automotive industry. With the coming of increasingly stringent emissions legislation, this development is more critical now than ever before. This has lead to an increase in the technical information available. Advanced Developments in Ultra-Clean Gasoline-Powered Vehicles provides the reader with technical information including a description of fundamental processes, insight on technical issues, key trends, and future R&D directions.

The homogeneous charge, compression-ignition (HCCI) combustion process has the potential to significantly reduce NOx and particulate emissions, while achieving high thermal efficiency and the capability of operating with a wide variety of fuels. This makes the HCCI engine an attractive technology that can ostensibly provide diesel-like fuel efficiency and very low emissions, which may allow emissions compliance to occur without relying on lean aftertreatment systems.

Dr. Fuquan (Frank) Zhao and experts in the field address a broad spectrum of key research and development issues in the rapidly progressing area of near-zero-emission gasoline-powered vehicles. Written in response to the increasingly stringent emissions legislation, this book provides the reader with a concise introduction to technology developments in near-zero-emission gasoline-powered vehicles. The material reflects global technical initiatives within the automotive and research communities. In all, this book contains more than 450 pages, with nearly 200 descriptive diagrams and/or images. It will serve as a valuable desk reference and provide the basics for those who are interested in understanding this advancing technology.