New Class 8 Engines Hit The Road
Tom Berg
Senior Equipment
Government regulations are one of the major influences in truck design, and for 2007 the regs are almost everything.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's diesel emissions regulations required cutting particulate matter by 90 percent and reducing nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons by 50 percent. As a result, truck and engine builders have spent two years or more in development, engineering and testing that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Customers will ultimately pay the tab, at the rate of $6,000 to $10,000 more per Class 8 truck. That's on top of price increases or surcharges due to increased costs of steel and other basic materials. Also up on commodities markets are precious metals such as platinum, which are used in exhaust aftertreatmentequipment for '07 diesels.
What customers will get for their money are vehicles that will safely run cleaner than ever – a major social benefit, some believe. But, says a purchasing vice president at one major fleet, they will offer no business benefits. There will be no payback for the investment and no better fuel economy, and sooner or later the engines will require more maintenance. Government authorities may think that the higher costs can be simply passed along to shippers, and the driver and truck shortage in recent years have made that somewhat easier to do. But many shippers won't accept rate increases, say this VP and others.
As a result, many fleets are stocking up on new trucks now and will avoid buying tractors with the '07 diesels as long as possible. Order boards at most Class 8 truck makers are now full through the end of this year, with shortages of some components, like axles and certain engines, constraining production.
Neither the OEMs nor suppliers geared up much to handle the pre-buy, because they knew a fall-off of 30 percent to 40 percent will probably follow and they don't want to go through major cutbacks with personnel layoffs. If there's a repeat of the downturn following October '02, when previous EPA emissions regs began taking effect, it will be well into '07 before orders blossom again.
However, forecasters believe it won't be a prolonged, recession-like downturn. The economy is being affected by higher energy costs and stiffer interest rates, and is expected to soften somewhat by year's end. But it will remain healthy and freight tonnage should stay high. Fleets will have to resume buying sooner rather than later just to handle the business and replace worn-out equipment. And while the price increases are stiff, they are a small part of the total cost of truck operation, one OEM notes. Much larger factors are wages and fuel.
Meanwhile, certain fleets will continue buying trucks almost no matter what. For example, leasing companies must supply equipment to customers on preset schedules, and in most cases these terms will not be interrupted come January. At least one leasing company has begun promoting full-service leasing as an alternative to buying, especially because leasers will have to contend with any maintenance problems and supply replacement vehicles if necessary.
And there is good news regarding the '07 models. According to our experiences with '07 diesels, they drive much like today's, so drivers shouldn't complain and might even like them better. Diesel particulate filters and other aftertreatment equipment will replace mufflers and mount either under cabs or in stacks. Regeneration of the filters, during which soot is burned off, will be automatic, and in many cases drivers won't notice when it's occurring. Periodic shop cleaning of filters will not take long and should be infrequent – only once or twice while in the first owner's hands, predict manufacturers.
Builders are each running millions of miles of lab and on-road testing to ensure the robustness of the engines and their new anti-smog equipment. Test units now in the hands of fleets seem to be performing well, though individual mileages are still low. Most builders say they are training dealer sales and shop people on their '07 products and how to maintain them, and briefing fleet customers on how to prepare for the new equipment.
Much of OEMs' work involved designing larger cooling systems and hardening underhood parts to take greater heat. In some trucks, radiators will be 20 percent to 30 percent larger than current models, and the forward portions of frames were altered to accommodate wider or taller cores. While there's at least one exception, hoods generally did not have to be enlarged, and use of louvers – something not seen since the late 1940s but at least talked about as a possible necessity in '07 – has been avoided. That's because engineers gave particular attention to the flow of air over cylinder blocks and out into the atmosphere via other routes.
Some '07 models have been redesigned with smoother exterior styling and nicer interiors. At least one brand-new model's production startup coincides with introduction of the new engines after the first of the year, and one OEM has revamped and renumbered its entire product line.
Taking note of state and local anti-idling laws around the country, many builders are offering auxiliary power units, or hookups for them, as factory options. They also continue to move toward more vertical integration, especially regarding engine models, which means fewer choices for buyers but, builders insist, decent value nonetheless.
Truck Model Roundup continued.
