Engine Makers Prepare For Oct. 1 While Fleets Remain Skittish
Barring any last minute changes, tougher diesel engine emissions regulations are set to go into effect Oct. 1 At press time two engine makers had EPA certification for engines meeting the new standards, while a third said it would by the deadline.
Mack Trucks followed Cummins as the second engine manufacturer to receive certification from the Environmental Protection Agency for engines meeting the new emissions standards.
Both Mack's on-highway ASET engines and the vocational version of its new engines have been approved.
Mack is using different approaches for its on-highway and vocational engine lines in meeting the tough new regulations. For highway tractors, the company will use cooled exhaust gas recirculation (C-EGR) technology. For those engines destined for vocational trucks, internal exhaust gas recirculation (I-EGR) will be employed.
While at press time it had yet to receive EPA certification, Detroit Diesel says it will be, noting its Series 60 engine will comply with the new emissions standards without penalties or aftertreatment devices.
DDC says it will initially make approximately 95% of its current ratings available in October 2002. DDC said it would submit applications for 2002 emissions certification to the EPA approximately 30-60 days in advance of scheduled production - as is its customary practice.
In the meantime, a new survey indicates truck fleets are largely planning to avoid the new engines and are instead pre-buying equipment with current engine models.
Nearly 40% of the companies responding to an American Trucking Associations survey over the summer had pre-bought or were pre-buying trucks - more than 8,000 of them. More than 90% of the companies responding said they will not take delivery of a new engine meeting the new standards in the fourth quarter of the year. And only 23% of the responding companies, representing slightly more than half of the power units in the survey, said they are planning to take delivery of the new engines next year.
More than 70% said they would buy or lease used trucks, rather than buy new trucks with the 2002 engines, if they had to add capacity in 2003 due to an economic surge.
