VECTO Simulation for 76-ton Vehicle Combinations

In the EU, CO2 emissions and fuel consumption for heavy-duty vehicles are determined according to Commission Regulation 2017/2400 using VECTO simulation tool. Heavy trucks with axle configuration 8x4 are declared according to Construction mission profile, which has average speed around 45 km/h and the reference payload of 12900 kg. In Finland 8x4 vehicles are typically used as towing vehicles for 76000 kg vehicle combinations in highway use, and the current declaration result is not representative for those high-capacity vehicle combinations.

There is a proposal to amend the Regulation in force, which would include to 8x4 vehicle declaration also Long Haul and Regional Delivery mission profiles. Currently the highest reference payload used for Long Haul and Regional Delivery mission profiles is 26500 kg according to European Modular System (EMS). Within the introduced sub-group for Extra Heavy Combination lorries (EHC), the Finnish proposal would enable the reference payload of 42000 kg for 8x4 vehicles.

In this study, two 8x4 trucks with a timber carrying body and a box body with typical technical specifications are studied. Declaration results using the proposed Long Haul and Regional Delivery driving cycles with EMS and EHC payloads are defined. Simulation results are compared to the fuel consumption values and specific CO2 emission values gathered from actual vehicle operation.

Using Long Haul driving cycle and the EHC reference payload of 42000 kg the simulated results of the specific CO2 emission are on average 25 % higher than the measured values of the typical timber truck and the box body truck. The use of Long Haul mission profile with the increased payload closer to the actual use case values around 50000−55000 kg give specific emission results closer to the actual values of 8x4 trucks and show the effect of high-capacity transports.

This report is a corrected version of report VTT-CR-00791-24.