An Adaptive Green Zone Strategy for Hybrid Electric Vehicle Control

Fine particulate matter exposure is a leading cause of death and disease globally. The transportation sector is responsible for over 50% of fine particulate matter emissions. Governments and vehicle manufacturers are looking to curtail this problem through policy reform and technological development. In this work, we present a new strategy to displace emissions from Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) called Adaptive Green Zone (AGZ) control. When operating in AGZ mode, vehicle controllers optimize for emissions in high-sensitivity areas and optimize for performance and range elsewhere. The vehicle interprets data from local pollution monitors in real-time to determine which driving mode is appropriate for a given location. We developed computational simulations to evaluate the performance of a Honda CR-V that was modified to operate as a PHEV. With AGZ control, vehicle emissions in Green Zones were eliminated with a minimal impact on fuel economy. Future work will continue to expand this concept by studying the effect of AGZ control from multiple vehicles and through physical implementation of AGZ control.