Horiba launches “Eco-Drive” demonstration of its mobile exhaust measuring system

25 January 2003

To commemorate fifty years in business, Horiba Ltd. announced the Global Eco-Drive Road Relay to be launched during a ceremony on 25 January 2003. In this road relay employees of Horiba volunteering as drivers will drive the “baton”—a car equipped with Horiba mobile exhaust measuring system—through relay points in Japan, the United States, and Europe. Emission data collected during the event will be released through academic societies and the internet, said Horiba.

The Eco-Drive relay will start at the fiftieth anniversary ceremony on January 25, where the company president Atsushi Horiba will present the keys to the first driver. The Japanese segment of the route will start in Kyushu in southern Japan and continue to Horiba’s headquarters in Kyoto. After segments in the United States and Europe, the relay will return to Japan (from Horiba’s headquarters to Hokkaido in northern Japan). The relay should be completed in August 2003.

The Eco-Drive car is equipped with the Horiba on-board emissions measurement system capable of measuring of vehicle emissions in actual road operation. The recorded information will lead to a better understanding of how a vehicle’s burden on the environment changes in real time, in response to factors such as traffic conditions, weather, and altitude. Vehicle emissions of CO, CO₂, HC, NO_x, and air-fuel ratio will be continuously measured. The mass of exhaust gases and fuel consumption will be calculated from values measured by an exhaust gas flow meter.

Source: Horiba