The Future Development of Worldwide Goods Traffic and its Impact on Drive Technologies

Authors

Dr. Georg Pachta-Reyhofen, CEO, MAN SE / MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG, Munich

Year

2011

Print Info

Fortschritt-Berichte VDI, Reihe 12, Nr. 735

Summary

Moving forward, worldwide goods traffic will continue to see strong growth. The scarcity of fossil fuels and the need for ecologically sustainable mobility are the two main challenges facing goods traffic of the future. Current emission regulations are primarily aimed at pollutants, and have already succeeded in reducing them sharply. With Euro VI, the first commercial vehicle to be almost free of pollutants will be a reality in the European commercial vehicles sector from 2014 onward. Creating incentives to replace old vehicles with new, more efficient ones could boost the effect substantially. Similar progress has been yielded in the maritime traffic segment, though the biggest hurdle is yet to come in the form of IMO Tier III. Retrofit solutions in particular make sense here, given the long lifecycles of ships. The strong focus on pollutants has led to reduction of consumption being neglected. Fuel consumption in the truck industry has stagnated in the last ten years. We desperately need to rethink things here.

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