Higher initial load is known to allow faster catalyst heating and lower cold start emission values. The generally expected change of the board net voltage to 42 Volts allows the use of additional or improved electric systems for increased vehicle comfort and safety. The resulting configuration offers as well new degrees of freedom in terms of board net energy management, which can be used to provide additional features, one of them the optimization of the engine load operation in the cold start phase. In this paper, a case study is used to show how a sensible choice of the operating point of the starter/generator in the cold start phase allows to reduce very strongly emissions with no additional exhaust after-treatment equipment.