Automotive Engineering - February 2023 - 26

Quicker pathways to reduce transportation's
SUSTAINABILITY FEATURE
CLIMATE IMPACT
The authors advocate
the U.S. DoE and
DoT restrict funding
to EV chargers with
a power rating of at
least 200 kW, thereby
decreasing charging
times on today's
public chargers by a
factor of four.
" Changing the labeling requirements for
EVs would enable consumers to make
knowledgeable choices about the true
environmental impact of the vehicle they
are considering and the time that it would
really take to charge. "
costs associated with upgrading the grid to provide sufficient electric
power for BEVs and PHEVs. Both infrastructures will be needed to
make quicker progress on emissions goals.
Hydrogen-fueled IC engines also may prove to be an attractive heavyduty
truck alternative because the engines are less expensive to build
and can leverage the existing manufacturing infrastructure. And they are
more tolerant to impurities in the hydrogen supply than are fuel cells.
To encourage hydrogen-fueled vehicles for both fuel cell and ICengine
versions, the EPA, as part of their implementation of
Renewable Fuel Standards, should mandate that only " green " hydrogen
be supplied for transportation use. Secondly, joint government
and industry programs should be expanded for the installation of
hydrogen fueling infrastructure.
'Perfect' vs. 'good'
Multiple vehicle options exist that are better than today's fossil fuelpowered
vehicles. Net-zero operating CO2, as will eventually be
provided by fully electric BEVs powered by renewable energy,
26 February 2023
certainly is part of the long-term endgame. However,
even with thoughtful policies, the path to that vision
will be slow and haphazard. In the interim, transportation-related
CO2 emissions can be reduced more rapidly
by pursuing CO2 reductions across all vehicles, not
just in new BEV vehicles sold to a subset of relatively
affluent Americans.
Multiple types of relatively climate-friendly vehicles
and accelerated development of sustainable substitute
fuels should all be part of the picture. Pursuing all
these policies will provide a more rapid reduction in
CO2 emissions in the near-term while ultimate zeroemission
technologies are being improved and implemented
- and ensure that in the transportation sector,
perfect does not become the enemy of good.
Dave Foster is the Phil and Jean Myers Professor Emeritus
of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University
of Wisconsin-Madison. John Koszewnik is the retired chief
technology officer of Achates Power and retired chief
engineer, V-engine engineering, Ford Motor Co. Wallace
Wade is the retired technical fellow and chief engineer
of Powertrain Systems Technology and Processes of Ford
Motor Co. Ward Winer is the Eugene C. Gwaltney Jr. School
Chair Emeritus of the Woodruff School of Mechanical
Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.
This article originally appeared in Issues in Science and
Technology, November 17, 2022. It is republished here with
permission. Article link: https://issues.org/reduce-vehicletransportation-emissions-foster-koszewnik-wade-winer
AUTOMOTIVE
ENGINEERING
FORD

https://issues.org/reduce-vehicle-transportation-emissions-foster-koszewnik-wade-winer https://issues.org/reduce-vehicle-transportation-emissions-foster-koszewnik-wade-winer

Automotive Engineering - February 2023

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