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Enhancing the predictive quality of engine models, while maintaining an affordable computational cost, is of great importance. In this study, a phenomenological combustion and a tabulated NOx model, focusing on efficient modeling and improvement of computational effort, is presented. The proposed approach employs physical and chemical sub-models for local processes such as injection, spray formation, ignition, combustion, and NOx formation, being based on detailed tabulated chemistry methods. The applied combustion model accounts for the turbulence-controlled as well as the chemistry-controlled combustion. The phenomenological combustion model is first assessed for passenger car application, especially with multiple pilot injections and high exhaust gas recirculation ratios for low-load operating points. The validation results are presented for representative operating conditions from a single-cylinder light-duty diesel engine and over the entire engine map of a heavy-duty diesel engine. In the second part of this study, a novel approach for accurate and very fast modeling of NO formation in combustion engines is proposed. The major focus of this study is on the development of a very fast-running NO mechanism for usage in the next generation of the engine control units. This approach is based on tabulation of a detailed chemical kinetic mechanism and is validated against the detailed chemical reaction mechanism at all engine-relevant conditions with the variation in pressure, temperature, and air-fuel ratio under stationary and ramp-type transient conditions in a perfectly stirred reactor. Using this approach, a very good match to the results from calculations with the detailed chemical mechanism is observed. Finally, the tabulated NOx kinetic model is implemented in the combustion model for in-cylinder NOx prediction and compared with the experimental engine measurement data. © 2015 Institution of Mechanical Engineers.