In order to address the challenge of accurately predicting nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission from diesel engines in transient operation using traditional neural network models, this study proposes a NOx emission forecasting model based on a hybrid neural network architecture combining the convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network. The objective is to enhance calibration efficiency and reduce diesel engine emissions. The proposed model utilizes data collected under the thermal cycle according to the world harmonized transient cycle (WHTC) emission test standard for training and verifying the prediction model. The CNN is employed to extract features from the training data, while LSTM networks are used to fit the data, resulting in the precise prediction of training NOx emissions from diesel engines. Experimental verification was conducted and the results demonstrate that the fitting coefficient (R2) of the CNN-LSTM network model in predicting transient NOx emissions from diesel engines is 0.977 with a root mean square error of 33.495. Compared to predictions made by a single LSTM neural network, CNN neural network predictions, and back-propagation (BP) neural network predictions, the root mean square error (RMSE) decreases by 35.6%, 50.8%, and 62.9%, respectively, while the fitting degree R2 increases by 2.5%, 4.4%, and 6.6%. These results demonstrate that the CNN-LSTM network prediction model has higher accuracy, good convergence, and robustness.