Variability of fuel consumption and CO_(2) emissions of a gasoline passenger car under multiple in-laboratory and on-road testing conditions

An increasing divergence regarding fuel consumption(and/or CO_(2)emissions) between realworld and type-approval values for light-duty gasoline vehicles(LDGVs) has posed severe challenges to mitigating greenhouse gases(GHGs) and achieving carbon emissions peak and neutrality. To address this divergence issue, laboratory test cycles with more real-featured and transient traffic patterns have been developed recently, for example, the China Lightduty Vehicle Test Cycle for Passenger cars(CLTC-P). We collected fuel consumption and CO_(2)emissions data of a LDGV under various conditions based on laboratory chassis dynamometer and on-road tests. Laboratory results showed that both standard test cycles and setting methods of road load affected fuel consumption slightly, with variations of less than 4%. Compared to the type-approval value, laboratory and on-road fuel consumption of the tested LDGV over the CLTC-P increased by 9% and 34% under the reference condition(i.e., air conditioning off, automatic stop and start(STT) on and two passengers). On-road measurement results indicated that fuel consumption under the low-speed phase of the CLTC-P increased by 12% due to the STT off, although only a 4% increase on average over the entire cycle. More fuel consumption increases(52%) were attributed to air conditioning usage and full passenger capacity. Strong correlations(R2> 0.9) between relative fuel consumption and average speed were also identified. Under traffic congestion(average speed below 25 km/hr), fuel consumption was highly sensitive to changes in vehicle speed. Thus,we suggest that real-world driving conditions cannot be ignored when evaluating the fuel economy and GHGs reduction of LDGVs.