Nowadays, the vast majority of commercial vehicles is solely powered by diesel engines. This is due to specific requirements on power take-off (PTO) and performance characteristics of the drive source. Due to their better degree of efficiency and high torque at low speeds, diesel engines have become increasingly popular with manufacturers of buses, trucks, construction equipment and agricultural vehicles. The ongoing diesel emissions scandal completely reversed the image of diesel engines. Due to the nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions, highly polluting diesel cars are now considered as urgent public health issue.
On the other hand, road transport is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, producing around 15% of the EU's CO2 emissions. As commercial vehicles are responsible for around a quarter of CO2 emissions from road transport, the European Commission has started to introduce new, stricter regulations for vehicle manufacturers of heavy-duty vehicles (coaches, buses, trucks) and non-road mobile machinery (excavators, bulldozers, front loaders). Binding emission limits were already introduced for light and heavy-duty vehicles. From 2025 onwards, manufacturers will have to meet 15% reduction targets set for the fleet-wide average CO2 emissions. Otherwise, financial penalties will be imposed if the CO2 targets are not met. Environmental requirements for agricultural and forestry tractors, and two or three-wheeled vehicles will be included in future regulations.
In order to achieve these European environmental policy goals, the commercial vehicle industry must rethink its approach. It is clear that these goals cannot be achieved without innovative solutions in the auxiliary equipment sector. Therefore, efficient and flexible solutions for pneumatic and hydraulic applications are needed. Especially in commercial vehicles, mainly hydraulic but also pneumatic systems play a fundamental role. Both the tipping device of an excavator and the lifting platform of a truck are based on hydraulics. Hydraulics/pneumatics are also used in the area of braking and steering systems. The conflict between environmental and economic objectives will only be resolved if the total cost of ownership (TCO) of future commercial vehicles is in the same range of today's diesel or gasoline engines. Therefore, the manufacturers of buses, trucks and non-road mobile machinery are in intense competition and have an urgent business and product need to accelerate the innovation cycle and to find auxiliary drives for their applications.
By addressing these needs, manufacturers envisage the same problem: auxiliaries like air compressors (required for the braking systems) and power steering pumps are designed for diesel or gasoline engines. Currently there are no auxiliary drives that meet the specific efficiency requirements of all-electric, hybrid and fossil-fuelled vehicles. The objectives of the innovation project are validate, upscale and commercialise innovative solutions for auxiliary equipment based on electrical machines for commercial vehicles. Strategically, MOTEG GmbH decided to narrow its attention to the hydraulic pump and air compressor applications, as these two product lines have a very wide range of use cases, e.g. as a power steering aid, brake booster, tilting device of an excavator or the lifting platform of a truck in the automotive segment for buses, trucks, construction vehicles and agricultural machinery. Our vision is to become the leading supplier in Europe (and beyond) for auxiliaries, regardless of whether they are all-electric, hybrid or commercial vehicles with combustion engines.
