Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: David, Rodrigo Pereira, Filho, Luciano Araujo Dourado, da Silva, Daniel Marques, Cal-Braz, João Alfredo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14022
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914266306576384
author David, Rodrigo Pereira
Filho, Luciano Araujo Dourado
da Silva, Daniel Marques
Cal-Braz, João Alfredo
author_facet David, Rodrigo Pereira
Filho, Luciano Araujo Dourado
da Silva, Daniel Marques
Cal-Braz, João Alfredo
contents Decarbonizing road transport requires consistent and transparent methods for comparing CO2 emissions across vehicle technologies. This paper proposes a machine learning-based framework for like-for-like operational assessment of internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) under identical, real-world driving conditions. The approach isolates technology-specific effects by holding the observed speed profile and environmental context fixed, enabling direct comparison of powertrain performance. Recurrent neural network models are trained independently for each domain to learn the mapping from contextual driving variables (speed, acceleration, temperature) to internal actuation variables (torque, throttle) and instantaneous CO2-equivalent emission rates. This structure allows the construction of counterfactual scenarios that answer: What emissions would an EV have generated if it had followed the same driving profile as an ICEV? By aligning both vehicle types on a unified instantaneous emissions metric, the framework enables fair and reproducible evaluation of powertrain technologies. It offers a scalable foundation for credible, data-driven assessments of vehicle carbon performance under real-world operating conditions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_14022
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Credible CO2 Comparisons: A Machine Learning Approach to Vehicle Powertrain Assessment
David, Rodrigo Pereira
Filho, Luciano Araujo Dourado
da Silva, Daniel Marques
Cal-Braz, João Alfredo
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Decarbonizing road transport requires consistent and transparent methods for comparing CO2 emissions across vehicle technologies. This paper proposes a machine learning-based framework for like-for-like operational assessment of internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) under identical, real-world driving conditions. The approach isolates technology-specific effects by holding the observed speed profile and environmental context fixed, enabling direct comparison of powertrain performance. Recurrent neural network models are trained independently for each domain to learn the mapping from contextual driving variables (speed, acceleration, temperature) to internal actuation variables (torque, throttle) and instantaneous CO2-equivalent emission rates. This structure allows the construction of counterfactual scenarios that answer: What emissions would an EV have generated if it had followed the same driving profile as an ICEV? By aligning both vehicle types on a unified instantaneous emissions metric, the framework enables fair and reproducible evaluation of powertrain technologies. It offers a scalable foundation for credible, data-driven assessments of vehicle carbon performance under real-world operating conditions.
title Credible CO2 Comparisons: A Machine Learning Approach to Vehicle Powertrain Assessment
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14022