The standard will be applied to vehicles ranging from pickup trucks to tractor-trailers, including 18-wheelers, sanitation trucks, buses and other commercial vehicles, manufactured in model years 2019 through 2027.
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The agency also claimed the rules will provide $230 billion in societal benefits, including benefits to our climate.
Earlier today, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced their jointly finalized standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles that will augment fuel efficiency and reduce carbon pollution.
“Our goal in this process was to work collaboratively with the agencies to simplify compliance while maximizing environmental benefits and overall cost savings for the fleets”. The sector makes up about 6% of overall USA greenhouse-gas emissions. By model year 2027 – when the Phase 2 standards are fully phased in – tractors in a tractor-trailer combination must achieve up to 25 percent lower Carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption than an equivalent tractor in 2018.
Under this new rule, EPA is also requiring that engines from donor vehicles installed in glider kits meet the emission standards applicable in the year of assembly for said glider kits – including all applicable standards for “criteria pollutants”, with limited exceptions for small businesses and for other special circumstances.
Glen Kedzie, American Trucking Associations vice president and counsel for energy and the environment, responded that “while the potential for real cost savings and environmental benefits under this rule are there – fleets will ultimately determine the success or failure of this rule based on their comfort level purchasing these new technologies”.
USA regulators on Tuesday will announce final regulations setting fuel efficiency standards on medium- and heavy-duty trucks through 2027 that will cut 1.1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters.
The EPA trailer standards, which exclude certain categories such as mobile homes, will begin to take effect in model year 2018 for certain trailers, while NHTSA’s standards will take effect as of 2021, with credits available for voluntary participation before then.
This rulemaking has a sharp freight transportation and supply chain focus, considering that heavy-duty trucks represent the second largest segment and collectively account for the largest increase in US transportation in terms of emissions and energy use, said DOT and EPA.
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Achates Power Inc. has developed radically improved internal combustion engines that increase fuel efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower costs. Cost effective technologies for trailers – including aerodynamic devices, light weight construction and self-inflating tires – can significantly reduce total fuel consumption by tractor-trailers, while paying back the owners in less than two years due to the fuel saved. The ATA welcomed the time given to manufacturers and the industry to meet the new standards. “We support the national harmonization of commercial vehicle standards and requirements through both technological and operational means”. “Having invested in approximately 6,000 natural gas trucks so far, we’ve already seen the benefits of new advanced technologies and have eliminated the need for 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel per year, per vehicle”. Truck sales were up in model years 2014 and 2015, the years covered under the first round of truck standards.
