To this end, the EU Commission has developed the VECTO simulation process in collaboration with the industry. How does it work, and how will further legal requirements influence the development of future trucks?

• The legislative focus is now increasingly on CO₂ emissions and fuel consumption
• From 2019, truck manufacturers will also start measuring their vehicles' CO₂ emissions with the help of the VECTO software program
• VECTO increases transparency for customers and strengthens competition between manufacturers. However, VECTO does not yet take account of numerous fuel-saving techniques adopted by Mercedes-Benz Trucks 

When the limits imposed by the increasingly stringent Euro standards over the decades are compared, the extent of the major technological challenges overcome by truck manufacturers between the introduction of Euro I in October 1993 and Euro VI on 31 December 2013 becomes clear. Highly sophisticated technology has been introduced to comply with the limits, bringing about a gradual improvement in the air quality in towns and cities. Take nitrogen oxide, for example: the current NOx limit specified by the Euro VI standard is 95 percent lower than the limit imposed by Euro I. And this has been accompanied by continually lower fuel consumption – which is no mean technical feat.

Challenge: Paris Climate Agreement

In order to also meet the targets specified by the Paris Climate Agreement, all countries worldwide must reduce their CO₂ emissions substantially. Since heavy-duty commercial vehicles produce around 25 percent of the emissions caused by road traffic, the EU sees the need to revise the legislation here. Challenge: reducing the CO₂ emissions of heavy-duty commercial vehicles is far more complicated than reducing those of passenger cars as there are many different versions of trucks for at times very varied transport tasks.

CO₂ emissions and fuel consumption are two linear variables when combustion engines are used. In other words: those who save fuel not only improve their own cost situation, they also do something for the environment. Despite drastically tightened emissions standards for nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions, which could only be adhered to with technical solutions that initially increase fuel consumption, the actual fuel consumption of heavy-duty Mercedes-Benz trucks and therefore also CO₂ emissions have fallen by 22 percent in the past 22 years according to DEKRA. The EU Commission decided to develop VECTO to in future allow better comparability of trucks' actual fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions and to help achieve the Paris targets. VECTO stands for "Vehicle Energy Consumption Calculation Tool" and was developed by the Commission together with the truck manufacturers and other stakeholders.

The VECTO software is a central element in an elaborate process for determining the CO₂ emissions of commercial vehicles, reporting and monitoring. With this process, the EU Commission initially wants to create a credible data basis for the CO₂ emissions of commercial vehicles – Europe-wide and for all manufacturers.

Exact measurements represent progress

Essential input data are measured initially as a data basis for VECTO. Six components have a major influence on fuel consumption: the engine, the rolling resistance of the tyres, the vehicle itself with its aerodynamic drag and its weight, the transmission, the axles and finally the auxiliary assemblies. With the exception of the auxiliary assemblies, for which standardised values will still be used, the values of all named components will be determined metrologically for VECTO. VECTO will then process all of these data. The tool can calculate the CO₂ emissions for any configured commercial vehicles and defined areas of application. This makes it easier for customers to directly compare vehicle models and increases competition between the manufacturers, although the software does have its limits and cannot depict all driving, loading and application situations, for example.

Mercedes-Benz Trucks demands development of VECTO

VECTO creates greater transparency in the market as a whole. Mercedes-Benz Trucks sees its introduction as an important step towards a sustainable transport system and supports this holistic approach to CO₂ reduction. Furthermore, those responsible at Mercedes-Benz Trucks are demanding that VECTO in future take account of all fuel-saving and therefore CO₂-saving approaches currently already available in Mercedes-Benz trucks. VECTO does not yet include savings achieved in real operation thanks to the use of anticipatory systems such as Predictive Powertrain Control (PPC), for example. The VECTO simulation model therefore needs to be developed even further. Because what matters for transport operators is still the real fuel consumption, which is generally lower than the VECTO calculations in the case of Mercedes-Benz Trucks.