Real Driving Emissions (RDE) regulations require the adoption of stoichiometric operation across the entire engine map for downsized turbocharged gasoline engines, which have been so far generally exploiting spark timing retard and mixture enrichment for knock mitigation. However, stoichiometric operation has a detrimental effect on engine and vehicle performances if no countermeasures are taken, such as alternative approaches for knock mitigation, as the exploitation of Miller cycle and/or powertrain electrification to improve vehicle acceleration performance. This research activity aims, therefore, to assess the potential of 48 V electrification and of the adoption of Miller cycle for a downsized and stoichiometric turbocharged gasoline engine. An integrated vehicle and powertrain model was developed for a reference passenger car, equipped with a EU5 gasoline turbocharged engine. Afterwards, two different 48 V electrified powertrain concepts, one featuring a Belt Starter Generator (BSG) mild-hybrid architecture, the other featuring, in addition to the BSG, a Miller cycle engine combined with an e-supercharger were developed and investigated. Vehicle performances were evaluated both in terms of elasticity maneuvers and of CO 2 emissions for type approval and RDE driving cycles. Numerical simulations highlighted potential improvements up to 16% CO 2 reduction on RDE driving cycle of a 48 V electrified vehicle featuring a high efficiency powertrain with respect to a EU5 engine and more than 10% of transient performance improvement.Energies 2019, 12, 2998 2 of 21 gases at a higher level, eliciting a further enrichment of the mixture. What is more, the use of mixture enrichment (i.e., moving from a stoichiometric to rich combustion) while cooling the in-cylinder charge and the exhaust gases, increases the CO emissions during high engine load operation, as highlighted by Clairotte et al. [3]. Moreover, future Regulation may prescribe a conformity factor for CO [4] limiting the exploitation of the fuel enrichment and pushing the development of the gasoline engines towards stoichiometric operation [5,6]. This aim can be achieved with the adoption of different powertrain technologies, like cooled exhaust manifold, high temperature resistant turbine as well as water injection, Miller cycle and advanced turbocharging, as explained by Glahn et al. [6].On the other hand, concerning the greenhouse emissions, the average fleet target value for CO 2 has been set to be 95 g/km from 2021 [7], measured according to the new Worldwide Harmonized Light-Duty Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) and correlated to the value of the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). Moreover, recently the European Parliament and the Council adopted Regulation (EU) 2019/631 [8] setting CO 2 emission performance standards for new passenger cars in the EU for the