Kolman’s Komments: How’d those engines perform?

In August 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) andU.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a first-ever Phase 1 regulation program to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve fuel efficiency for Model Year 2014 to 2018 heavy duty trucks and buses.

To determine how the GHG engines performed, the Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) conducted a survey on EPA/NHTSA Phase 1 engine performance and fleet experience as compared to EPA Model Year 2010 to 2013 engines.

TMC is the only industry association focused solely on truck technology and maintenance. 

Some results of the study were presented at the recent 2017 TMC Annual Meeting & Transportation Technology Exhibition.

Scorecard

The survey respondents' companies represented 48,763 power units. Of the Class 7 and 8 power units, about 67 percent of responding fleets were equipped with EPA 2014, 2015 and 2016 engines; 24 percent were equipped with EPA 2010 to 2013 engines.

Seventy seven percent of the respondents rated the fuel economy performance of EPA 2014 to 2016 engines as “better than” EPA 2010 to 2013 engines. More than 62 percent rated EGR-related component failure rates of EPA 2014 to 2016 engines as “better than” EPA 2010 to 2013 engines. 

For the questions on drivers’ understanding of aftertreatment systems and drivers’ understanding of engine malfunction indicators; 73 percent of respondents rated EPA 2014 to 2016 engines the “same as” EPA 2010 to 2013  engines. 

Seventy one percent of respondents rated emissions component failure rates as “below expectations” since the beginning of the Phase 1 program.