Case Study: Eaton Corporation achieves 90% emissions reduction and 50% fuel-economy improvement with MathWorks Model-Based Design

Eaton Reduces Emissions by 90% for Leading Freight Carrier’s Hybrid Test Delivery Vehicles

Eaton Corporation, a global diversified industrial manufacturer, took on a freight carrier’s challenge to retrofit a standard delivery vehicle to cut toxic emissions by 90% and improve fuel economy by 50% within one year. To meet this aggressive schedule and validate control algorithms early, Eaton turned to MathWorks and its Model-Based Design tools, including Simulink, Simulink Coder, Embedded Coder, Simulink Real-Time, Optimization Toolbox, and Stateflow.

Using MathWorks tools, Eaton modeled and simulated the hybrid control architecture, ran hardware‑in‑the‑loop tests, and automatically generated production C code for the controller, enabling faster iterations and reducing development time by about half. The MathWorks-based solution let Eaton exceed the targets—90% emissions reduction and 50% better fuel economy—win the competition, build 20 hybrid test vehicles for real-world deployment, and validate performance on dynamometers and in-field testing.

Eaton Corporation

Jeffrey Carpenter

Senior Chief Engineer