By Joe Howard, Staff Writer This story appears in the Oct. 1 print edition of Transport Topics.
TOOELE, Utah — Navistar’s choice of exhaust gas recirculation over selective catalytic reduction to comply with U.S. emissions rules failed not because of the technology, but because the company had no partners in the effort, said Jim Hebe, Navistar’s senior vice president for North America Sales Operations.
“The decision to go EGR was not the wrong decision — the decision to go it alone was the wrong decision,” Hebe told reporters here Sept. 25 at Miller Motorsports Park during a test drive event of the company’s vocational product line. “If we would have stuck with a partner in the engine business we would have had more time to develop an in-cylinder solution, and probably, at the end of the day, would have gotten there.
“In the end, the biggest issue for us was not EGR, but that we ran out of time [and] we ran out of credits,” he said.
Navistar had originally worked with German truck maker MAN on an SCR engine, but never went into production. Cummins was originally to supply Navistar with EGR engines to meet 2010 emissions rules, but later chose to employ SCR instead, which led to a breach between the truck maker and the engine maker.
Navistar was permitted to sell engines that did not comply with 2010 emission limits because it had previously earned credits from selling engines with lower emissions than existing regulations permitted.
As those credits dwindled, Navistar was compelled to announce plans to add SCR systems and engines built by Cummins Inc. to its model lineup. Navistar is currently paying penalties for each non-compliant engine it sells.
“It’s fun to go back to go back to Cummins and be friends again,” Hebe said. “They’re just a phenomenal company. Nobody in the world has treated International any better than Cummins. They didn’t have to do [anything] for us. What they’re doing for us, how they’re doing it, and the way they’re doing it, is just phenomenal. They’ve just been tremendous.”
Hebe told Transport Topics that dealers are also pleased with the company’s new direction.
“Our dealers wanted the noise to go away,” he said. “They wanted to get back to selling trucks. They wanted clarity, and direction, and focus.”
He added that people within Navistar are also happy about the company’s new strategy.
“We are where we should be, and we feel comfortable about where we are. I know I do. And that’s something new for a lot of us. We haven’t felt real comfortable for a long time,” he said.
Hebe also said that the company has no plans to continue development of an EGR solution for the 2010 rules.
“We have our hands full to get SCR done,” he said.
While the company will continue to build its MaxxForce 15-liter engine in the near-term, it will eventually be phased out in favor of the Cummins 15-liter ISX diesel, he said.
“Cummins will be the 15-liter — I don’t think that’s any secret,” Hebe said, noting that Navistar cannot make a business case for also keeping its own 15-liter in the MaxxForce lineup.
“At the end of the day, we are not capable of supporting that broad of an engine line,” he said. “It’s a shame, because it’s a great engine, but the volumes are not worth it. We’ll build them as long as we can and then move to the ISX.”
Company officials have said they expect to begin delivering trucks with Cummins 15-liter engines in them to customers in December, and to have their retooled 13-liter MaxxForce engines with SCR in customers’ hands by next spring.
