The heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) sector is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. HDVs, which include buses, coaches, and trucks, account for a disproportionate 25% of transportation sector emissions, even though they represent only about 5% of all vehicles. This high level of emissions is primarily due to the intensive use of these vehicles for long-haul routes and their substantial fuel consumption.
The project will focus on the optimization of today and future logistic operations involving Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDV), which is the result of a complex scenario and multi-dimensional systems (environmental impact, business model, technology competition, sustainability, Market trend, customer needs, industrialization approach, energy demand and availability, etc.). A concrete study case will be defined and different technology options for net-zero emission vehicles will be compared and assessed.
Considering hydrogen and electricity as the main energy carriers for future logistic solutions, the project will cover different dimensions where metrics of the methodology should be considered and weighted in the full life-cycle perspective, complemented with the contribution that Digitalization will also bring in optimizing the logistic operations.
The project will provide a procedure to steer both OEMs and logistic companies/fleet operators in proposing sustainable freight transport solutions. The new structured and consistent approach will allow to breakdown the complexity of the system, providing indications to energy players and public authorities useful to set the most suitable conditions for the ecosystem optimization.