Mr Willar Vonk (TNO) presented the report of the draft MAC test procedure and MAC pilot test phase on behalf of the consortium.

The MAC efficiency project contains two test phases :

• A- Multi lab pilot test (to solve open issues)
• B- Multi lab (4) round robin with golden vehicle.

Documents and the assessment tool are both available on CIRCA website.

Open issues :

• ► Sensitivities to gearshift – GSI vs fixed shift points
• ► Soak temperature
• ► Drive cycle @ min/max speed (dyno power)
• ► Ambient temperature / humidity

Additional testing in some laboratories will consider solar loading on/off and HVAC blower on/off.

Next steps : European MAC efficiency meeting 16 April 2012 in Brussels regarding report out from pilot phase. Additional participants welcome – registration via Willar Vonk (insert email address) in advance.

Questions :

Mr Pollack (Hungary) requested additional information on the vehicle / lab test matrix. Mr Vonk confirmed that there is an extensive test matrix where all stakeholders have contributed in order to ensure all test options and open issues are adequately addressed.
The MAC efficiency scope is M1 and N1, accordingly are the no N1 vehicles covered in the pilot study test matrix.

Mr Eberhard (Germany) inquired whether a more dynamic cycle would give different results. Mr Steininger (EC) responded that since the protocol measures two large numbers which are subtracted from each other to provide a very small number, that it is important that these are generated using stable conditions with good repeatability in order to secure a precise result, hence the need to use steady state conditions rather than a dynamic cycle. This also gives future opportunities for virtual testing.

Discussions regarding how the MAC efficiency result could be incorporated into EU CO2 legislation. Mr Steininger confirmed that it’s not so easy and there are further steps to go – the political discussions will happen later. In the meantime, focus should remain on completing the pilot phase. It was also explained that it is expected that MAC systems which perform well over the draft procedure would also perform well under EU Summer conditions and that the relative ranking of MAC systems was not expected to change.