The Kyoto Protocol, that had been in force from February 16, 2005, requires significant reduction in $CO_2$ emissions for all anthropogenic sources containing transportation, industrial, commercial, and residential fields, etc, and automotive emission standards for air pollutants such as particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides $(NO_x)$ become more and more tight for improving ambient air quality. This paper has briefly reviewed homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion technology offering dramatic reduction in $CO_2,;NO_x$ and PM emissions, compared to conventional gasoline and diesel engine vehicles, in an effort of automotive industries and their related academic activities to comply with future fuel economy legislation, e.g., $CO_2$ emission standards and corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) in the respective European Union (EU) and United States of America (USA), and to meet very stringent future automotive emission standards, e.g., Tier 2 program in USA and EURO V in EU. In addition, major challenges to the widespread use of HCCI engines in road applications are discussed in aspects of new catalytic emissions controls to remove high CO and unburned hydrocarbons from such engine-equipped vehicles.