Setting engine emission targets to meet diesel car requirements is particularly important in engine performance development phase. Many researches are focused on associating vehicle performance with engine targets, but most work is done by testing, which is time and cost consuming, furthermore, the relationship of vehicle and engine will change when either engine or vehicle changes. A GT-Drive model to simulate New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) for passenger car is developed and calibrated by testing data, model precision is controlled within 5%. Time distribution of engine operating conditions when car running NEDC cycle has been analyzed, 10 critical major engine operating points are summarized according to running time proportion. Emission of NOx and smoke control regions containing these 10 points for target engine are set. Vehicle emissions are simulated and evaluated during engine development after engine performance test data are got, and engine combustion system layout and calibration are adjusted until vehicle targets are met. Vehicle is tested in chassis dynamometer finally, the testing results show a good agreement with the simulated results with an error of less than 5%, which proves that the emission value exchange of vehicle and engine is reliable. Performance target decomposition method for passenger car diesel presented can greatly shorten the development cycle and save costs. Setting engine emission targets to meet diesel car requirements is particularly important in engine performance development phase. Many researches are focused on associating vehicle performance with engine targets, but most work is done by testing, which is time and cost consuming, furthermore, the relationship of vehicle and engine will change when either engine or vehicle changes. A GT-Drive model to simulate New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) for passenger car is developed and calibrated by testing data, model precision is controlled within 5%. Time distribution of engine operating conditions when car running NEDC cycle has been analyzed, 10 critical major engine operating points are summarized according to running time proportion. Emission of NOx and smoke control regions containing these 10 points for target engine are set. Vehicle emissions are simulated and evaluated during engine development after engine performance test data are got, and engine combustion system layout and cali bration are adjusted until vehicle targets are met. the testing results show an good agreement with the simulated results with an error of less than 5%, which proves that the emission value exchange of vehicle and engine is reliable Performance target decomposition method for passenger car diesel presented can greatly shorten the development cycle and save costs.