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There is a profound sense of urgency among leading industrialized nations: governments recognize that massive reductions in carbon emissions are required if we are to limit climate change in an era of ever-increasing global population growth and increasing affluence. They may also believe that the auto industry can deliver more carbon reduction faster at a lower absolute and political cost than other industries. Continued investment on the part of governments and the auto industry to create a viable model for sustainable mobility and vehicle electrification in the 2010 – 2020 timeframe should help drive transport-related carbon emissions down to the 60-90 grams/kilometer level, from 130-155 grams today, and contribute to an overall 20-30 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions.

The objective of this paper is to explore the influence of freestream turbulence on heat transfer processes to passenger cars in climatic wind tunnels. This will include a consideration of different flow zones on the vehicles. It will be shown up to which value of the turbulence intensity the influence on the heat transfer to the passenger compartment remains insignificant. The effects of freestream turbulence on the design and operation of climatic wind tunnels are discussed. The upper limit for the turbulence intensity can be regarded as a sizing quantity to be used in planning and operating vehicle-climatic wind tunnels in the future.