Real-world fuel efficiency and exhaust emissions of light-duty diesel vehicles and their correlation with road conditions

The real-world fuel efficiency and exhaust emission profiles of CO, HC and NO_x for light-duty diesel vehicles were investigated. Using a portable emissions measurement system, 16 diesel taxies were tested on different roads in Macao and the data were normalized with the vehicle specific power bin method. The 11 Toyota Corolla diesel taxies have very good fuel economy of (5.9 ± 0.6) L/100 km, while other five diesel taxies showed relatively high values at (8.5 ± 1.7) L/100 km due to the variation in transmission systems and emission control strategies. Compared to similar Corolla gasoline models, the diesel cars confirmed an advantage of ca. 20% higher fuel efficiency. HC and CO emissions of all the 16 taxies are quite low, with the average at (0.05 ± 0.02) g/km and (0.38 ± 0.15) g/km, respectively. The average NO_x emission factor of the 11 Corolla taxies is (0.56 ± 0.17) g/km, about three times higher than their gasoline counterparts. Two of the three Hyundai Sonata taxies, configured with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) + diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) emission control strategies, indicated significantly higher NO₂ emissions and NO₂/NO_x ratios than other diesel taxies and consequently trigger a concern of possibly adverse impacts on ozone pollution in urban areas with this technology combination. A clear and similar pattern for fuel consumption and for each of the three gaseous pollutant emissions with various road conditions was identified. To save energy and mitigate CO₂ emissions as well as other gaseous pollutant emissions in urban area, traffic planning also needs improvement.