Daimler Trucks North America on Aug. 6 announced pricing for meeting EPA2010 standards with its Detroit Diesel BlueTec or Cummins mid-range engine emissions technologies. Emissions technology surcharges for vehicles equipped with Detroit Diesel DD15 and DD16 big bore engines, as well as the medium bore DD13, will be $9,000 per vehicle. A surcharge of $7,300 will be added to vehicles equipped with the Cummins ISC8.3 engine, and a $6,700 surcharge will be added to the price of vehicles equipped with Cummins ISB6.7 engines.
The surcharges reflect costs associated with adding selective catalytic reduction, which Daimler says will significantly improve fuel economy compared to EPA 2007 engines while meeting the stringent, near-zero emission standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that take effect January 1, 2010.
SCR technology consists of an after-treatment catalyst system that allows engine exhaust to be treated with diesel exhaust fluid that reduces NOx into nitrogen and water. Since virtually no base engine changes are needed for SCR to work, service technicians will also find no engine maintenance changes for EPA2010, Daimler says.
Customers evaluating BlueTec-equipped 2010 test engines report up to a 5 percent increase in mpg, said Mark Lampert, senior vice president of sales for Daimler Trucks North America. “We feel strongly that providing our customers with payback in the form of significant improvement in fuel economy is of fundamental importance and an appropriate return on their investment in 2010 technology.”
Detroit Diesel BlueTec fuel efficiencies are the result of three optimization factors which are: base engine-out NOx levels, diesel particulate filter (DPF) regeneration intervals, and exhaust back pressure, Daimler says. In addition, reduced reliance on exhaust gas recirculation lowers heat rejection, meaning no expansion of cooling capacity and no resulting impact on aerodynamics or under-hood packaging.
