New Steps Toward Sustainable On-Road Transportation

The past month or so has been very busy for FPT Industrial, which announced three important projects related to sustainable on-highway transportation.

The most recent announcement saw FPT Industrial, Iveco and Snam, a global energy infrastructure operator, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for technological and commercial cooperation aimed to the decarbonization of the transport sector in Italy and internationally by developing biomobility (using biomethane and natural gas) and hydrogen.

The collaboration will cover the entire supply chain in on-highway vehicles, the companies said, from engines with FPT Industrial, to commercial vehicles with Iveco and to distribution infrastructure and services with Snam4Mobility. It will include new business models for light- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and  buses and will also focus on compiling studies designed to plan and experiment with new refueling solutions, technologies and infrastructure for fleets and professional customers.

Furthermore, FPT Industrial, Iveco and Snam plan to collaborate on sustainable mobility projects in the field of local public transport and public utility.

“We are a market leader, having sold more than 50 000 methane and biomethane engines and boast the most powerful, 100% natural gas engine for industrial vehicles, the Cursor 13 with 460 hp,” said Pierpaolo Biffali, vice president Product Engineering at FPT Industrial.

Marco Liccardo, vice president Medium & Heavy Trucks Global Product Line at Iveco, added, “Today, we look to the future with the knowledge that natural gas and biomethane are a fundamental enabling factor and a bridge towards hydrogen, which will provide the solution for long-haul transport in view of the strict 2025 European emission reduction targets, and consistently with our joint effort with Nikola to launch our fuel cell heavy duty truck by 2023.”

FPT Industrial and Iveco are also part of H2Haul, an European project to introduce and utilize hydrogen trucks for on-road transport.

Earlier in October, FPT Industrial announced its participation in LONGRUN (Long-distance powertrain for heavy-duty trucks and coaches), a project within the European Union Horizon 2020 program. The project brings together 30 partners from 13 countries across Europe which will develop eight demonstration units – three engines, one hybrid driveline, two coaches and three trucks – to accelerate the transition from fossil-based fuels to alternative and renewable alternatives. It is expected that LONGRUN will contribute to lowering the environmental impact of heavy-duty vehicles with 10% energy saving and 10% CO₂ saving, 30% lower exhaust emissions (NOx, CO and others) and 50% peak thermal efficiency.

Finally, at the end of September, FPT Industrial announced its participation in the new IMPERIUM project (Implementation of Powertrain Control for Economic and Clean Real driving Emission and Consumption), dedicated to delivering green vehicles and mobility system solutions of the future, with the main objective to achieve a 20% fuel consumption (diesel and urea) and consequently CO₂ reduction compared to model-year 2014 vehicle, whilst keeping the vehicle within the legal limits for emissions.

The IMPERIUM consortium encompasses major European players and is responsible for 45% of the heavy-duty vehicles manufactured in the EU and looks to  provide a 100% European value chain for the development of future powertrain control strategies for trucks.

The overall objective is the development of new means of predictive and comprehensive powertrain control in an optimized way, exploiting the full potential of the individual systems for each vehicle application and mission. IMPERIUM aims at proof of compliance for the new components with a fuel economy target of 20% compared to the same vehicle with conventional control and Euro 6 standards under real driving conditions.