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VECTO

Vehicle Energy Consumption calculation TOol

Transportvehicle simulationfuel consumptionCO2 emissionsheavy-duty vehiclesHDV

overview

Transportvehicle simulationfuel consumptionCO2 emissionsheavy-duty vehiclesHDV

main purpose

VECTO is a vehicle simulation software created to support CO2 emissions monitoring from Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDV) in Europe and serve as the official CO2 calculation tool in the certification scheme.

summary

The Vehicle Energy Consumption calculation TOol (VECTO) is a Heavy Duty Vehicle (HDV) energy consumption simulation software developed by the European Commission for regulatory purposes. VECTO software platform consists of VECTO software and a series of other software tools developed for the needs of the HDV certification procedure. Those include VECTO-Engine, VECTO-AirDrag and VECTO-hash&sign tools which are used at various points during the certification process. VECTO software is licensed under the European Union Public Licence (EUPL). VECTO provides output values for the average of the test cycle and in 1 Hz resolution for the entire test cycle together with relevant additional simulation results (e.g. power demand of single auxiliaries, losses in transmission, total driving resistance and share of the single driving resistances). 

VECTO has been introduced in May 2017 in the European vehicle type-approval system as the official tool used in Europe to certify and monitor the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions from HDV, and its use is compulsory in Europe for CO2 certification of Heavy Duty Vehicles according to 2017/2400/EU. Beyond this use in policy implementation, VECTO can be used in any other phase of the policy cycle including impact assessment studies, analysis of the likely impact of specific technologies on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, and formulation and analysis of future policy scenarios. 

model type

ownership

EU ownership (European Commission)
The model was developed by Technical University of Graz and Ricardo AEA on behalf of the JRC and DG CLIMA. The Commission holds the IPR. The model is licenced under EUPL 1.2.

licence

Licence type
Free Software licence

homepage

https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/transport/vehicles/vecto_en

details on model structure and approach

The VECTO vehicle simulation model is used for Heavy Duty Vehicle CO2 and fuel consumption certification in Europe.

The model needs detailed input on a large variety of vehicle subsystems, especially rolling resistance, air drag and transmission data, as well as an engine map. Generic models are available for a number of subsystems, but further development is bringing in more detail, as requested by the industry. 

Given the input data for a base vehicle, VECTO is capable of simulating different vehicle configurations, allowing for a quick estimation of CO2 emissions and energy consumption from heavy duty vehicles of different characteristics. VECTO simulates CO2 emissions and fuel consumption based on vehicle longitudinal dynamics using a driver model for simulation of target speed cycles. The required load to be delivered by the internal combustion engine is calculated in 1Hz based on the driving resistances, the power losses in the drivetrain system and the power consumption of the vehicle auxiliary units. Engine speed is determined based on a gear shift model, the gear ratios and the wheel diameter. Fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are then interpolated from an engine fuel/CO2 map. The VECTO software is written in C#.

model inputs

Main inputs

  • Engine fuel consumption map
  • Torque loss maps at the drive train
  • Vehicle mass
  • Vehicle road loads
  • Vehicle characteristics
  • Vehicle auxiliary systems

 

model outputs

The list of output values has been defined together by the developers and industry.  The model provides CO2 and fuel consumption results over official and user defined driving cycles (mission profiles). Various metrics can be calculated such as gCO2/km, gCO2/t-km, gCO2/passenger-km litres/100km, l/100passenger-km etc.

model spatial-temporal resolution and extent

ParameterDescription
Spatial Extent/Country Coverage
EU Member states 27
Specific driving cycle / mission profile.
Spatial Resolution
Entity
Vehicle
Temporal Extent
Simulation of HDV operation over given mission profiles and operating conditions. Usual temporal resolution 2 or 1 Hz. Seasonal variations cannot be captured.
Temporal Resolution
1 Hz