Hino Trucks has announced receiving certification of conformity for all of its 2007 model-year engines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, adhering to stringent EPA standards of emissions reduction being introduced for all on-highway heavy-duty diesel engines in the upcoming year. Hino Trucks will start producing its 2008 model-year trucks in the first quarter of ’07 at its assembly plant in Long Beach, Calif.
“We are pleased to have met the challenge of producing cleaner engines while still maintaining our competitive edge in fuel economy and engine performance”, says Nick Vermet, Hino Trucks’ senior vice president of sales, marketing and customer support. “Hino Trucks supports the actions taken by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce the emissions by medium- and heavy-duty trucks.”
Hino introduced emissions changes in May 2005 in compliance with Japanese requirements for tighter NOx and PM levels, thus allowing the company to get a jump on the commercial applications used in its J-series engines for the U.S. market, Vermet says. “By utilizing the same technology used in Japan to meet Japan’s stringent emissions regulations, we are able to provide our U.S. customers with a cost-effective proven solution,” he says. “We have produced over 16,000 medium-duty trucks utilizing this technology, and have estimated those vehicles to have accumulated over 160 million miles of real-life experience.”
