Future Powertrain Technologies
Multi-Client Studies

Global Insight and TIAX LLC have formed a strategic partnership to explore the future of powertrain technologies. The prime objective of these studies was to help our clients prepare for the dramatic changes ahead.

The Future of Powertrain Technologies: 2010 to 2025

In the next 15-20 years, powertrains for passenger cars and light trucks will change significantly. Driven by substantially increased concern over climate change, stricter emissions regulations, and evolving consumer preferences, changes will take place in combustion systems and the exhaust gas treatment systems that enable them, and in the transmission and utilization of various levels of hybridization.

The study, undertaken by Global Insight and TIAX LLC, was designed to assist major component suppliers and OEMs develop future technology strategies and business plans. It enables policy makers to assess the feasibility and consequences of various levels of fuel consumption regulation. The study is based upon three plausible, internally consistent scenarios of emissions and fuel consumption/CO2 regulations, crude oil prices, and vehicle segmentation trends.

The Future of Heavy-Duty Powertrains: 2007 and Beyond

The diesel engine is the king of heavy-duty on- and off-highway motive power. It is highly efficient, durable, reliable, easily maintained, and has a globally robust infrastructure to support it. Yet, it has come under increasing scrutiny as a source of carcinogens and other pathogens, not to mention often-visible soot and a distinctive, rather unpleasant, odor. For well over a decade, government-funded research has explored alternatives to the diesel, as well as the means to minimize the negative aspects of this omnipresent heavy-duty engine.

How clean can the diesel become? Are there any viable alternatives (such as HCCI/CAI) waiting in the wings? Will rail or some other entirely different mode of transport take a greater share of freight traffic away from the diesel-powered truck? How much longer will investments in diesel combustion, exhaust gas treatment, and improved diesel powertrains provide good returns on the resources committed to their continued development? Would these resources be put to better use if they were applied to other sources of on- and off-highway motive power, such as hybrid, rail, fuel cell, HCCI/CAI, etc.?

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