Is the Motorcycle industry ready for EURO 5b & OBD II in 2024?

Dr Andrew Woods
Dr Andrew Woods

 

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Is the Motorcycle industry ready for EURO 5b and OBD II in 2024, We think it's going to be a close call......
 
The Motorcycle industry is undergoing rapid, seismic change like never experienced before. The climate crisis and poor air quality have forced the world’s top Motorcycle engineers to re-imagine how people move and the environmental impact of that. Electrification of motorcycles is a key and needed trend with electric models now being offered by most major brands.

New emissions regulations (for e.g. EURO5 Regulations 1) are driving levels of innovation and knowledge development never experienced before. At CATAGEN we have a unique insight into how our partners are shaping up to meet the new demanding targets in time for 2024 launch dates.

There are a couple of trends emerging. Firstly, a few motorcycle developers have been very proactive kicking off development studies after new regulations were announced to understand what it meant in terms of time, knowledge; and capability development to hit those new regulations2.

The main body of the pack are now beginning to think about the new regulations and OBD, some have initiated prove out tests. However, with typical development times of 18-months to 2 years for a new motorcycle, activities need to be fairly well defined by now to be able to hit a 2024 launch date.

Currently, there appears to be some lack of understanding of the energy, timelines, and costs with producing FUL (full useful life) Catalysts and OBD Catalysts for development and homologation purposes. Generally speaking, new capabilities on Motorcycle Oxygen Storage Measurement and relating that to tailpipe emissions need to be more fully developed and well understood by the developer.3 & 4.

We are now in the later stages of calendar year 2022. Whilst momentum is certainly building, we anticipate a squeeze sometime in 2023 where all vehicle developers will be looking for capacity and expertise to help them through this development cycle. We have seen some instances where Euro 5 and OBD compliance development programs are being pushed into 2023 perhaps by some that have more flexibility in the launch dates.

Currently, the Motorcycle Engineering team must juggle many more variables than normal. These include: supply chain issues, cost of energy/energy security, markets changing and distorting. We are also seeing changing powertrains variants, changing organisation roles and structures, new technology development, new regulations, a moving supplier base, nervous investors and slow sales post pandemic.

OMEGA 3 WritingRest assured, our team at CATAGEN are here to help and assist where possible. Our OMEGA reactor system has the ability to provide reproducible ageing testing along with unique and reproducible WMTC drive cycle testing. This approach can reduce development times and save costs helping you meet your target launch dates. Based in Northern Ireland we have a security of energy supply and have the ability to freely trade with the EU, UK, India, USA, Japan and beyond.

If you have any enquiries please contact Dr Kurtis Irwin, UKRI Future Leader Fellowship Award Recipient. kurtis@catagen.com

1. https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/28656/client-area/uploaded_files/4772/content-area/Guide/catagenmotorcycleultimateguideemissions-1616701773.pdf

2. https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/2021-01-0598/

3. https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/2021-24-0083/

4. https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/2022-01-0574

 

 

 

 
Dr Andrew Woods

Dr Andrew Woods

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Andrew has overall responsibility for the management of CATAGEN, having founded the business and successfully spun it out from Queen’s University, Belfast (“QUB”). He graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Automotive Catalysis which led to the development of the CATAGEN business, based on the technology originally developed at QUB. At QUB, he collaborated with Professor Roy Douglas to create a new and much more cost effective and accurate means of testing emissions control devices (catalytic converters), the primary purpose of which is to clean up the combustion process that comes from an engine. After spin out from QUB, CATAGEN initially sold test equipment to two of the world’s largest vehicle manufacturers. However, Dr Woods followed this by leading a significant R&D project to develop the technology for larger scale applications. In 2017 he launched a winning service-based business model and the company has experienced rapid growth ever since. Catagen was named by Deloitte in the Technology Fast 50 Awards for 2019 and 2020 as one of the fastest growing businesses on the island of Ireland. CATAGEN was the only company in Northern Ireland represented on Technation’s Net Zero Cohort in 2022. Andrew’s vision for the business is to create a world leading and unique Emissions Data Centre - the overall purpose of which is to clean and decarbonise the air and minimise carbon impact on our environment. This expertise is now leading to the development of new Net Zero Technologies to further reduce emissions including the production of green hydrogen, e-fuels, carbon capture and compression technologies and a personalised emissions data platform that will track the emissions pollution created by a user’s vehicle. www.catagen.com

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