Competition of Energy Carriers Impact on the Propulsion System

In future, it will be increasingly important in powertrain engineering to take into account all aspects of energy production and energy supply. This will spark an interesting competition among the energy sources themselves as well as among the related drive systems. The international trend conference "Engine & Environment," organized by AVL for the 31st time in Graz, focuses on “Competition of Energy Carriers – Impact on the Propulsion System." On June 6 and 7, 2019, a range of high-level experts from the automotive industry, among them Rajan Wadhera (Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd), Ulrich Schmalohr (Geely Automobile Research Institute), Tobias Lösche-ter Horst (Volkswagen AG) and Wolfgang Langhoff (BP Europa SE), will be examining this current issue from a variety of angles.

Over the next few years, the automotive industry will be undergoing the probably most radical change in all of its over one hundred years of history. The reduction of greenhouse gases to limit global warming and the simultaneous maximum avoidance of pollutant emissions to improve local air quality call for a substantial extension of portfolios – both of drive technologies and of energy sources. To ensure the sustainability of the measures implemented, it is crucial to take an integrated approach to the emissions issue, which also encompasses the analysis of energy production and energy supply, as well as the entire life cycle of vehicles – from production to recycling.

Growing technological connectivity between engine and environment

AVL created the “Engine & Environment” conference in 1988 as an independent, neutral and international platform to promote the interdisciplinary discussion of key aspects in engine and vehicle technology, including environmental and energy issues, within a wider social context. At that time it was not possible to predict the degree to which, within just three decades, the engine and the environment would be connected with each other. While the original objective of this series of conferences remains the same, the range of contents was significantly extended to include current issues and trends.