Most Buyers Pick ’09 Engines for Their 2010-Model Trucks

This story appears in the Aug. 30 print edition of Transport Topics.

Truck manufacturers delivered vehicles with 66,494 Class 8 engines during the first half of the year, WardsAuto.com reported last week, but most of the power plants do not meet 2010 federal emissions regulations, manufacturers and analysts said.

Two industry consultants said that was the result of manufacturers’ drawing down their inventories of 2009 engines.

“These [2010] figures on engines are absolutely all coming from the stockpiling of 2009 engines, whether by the truck or engine manufacturers,” Chris Brady, president of Commercial Motor Vehicle Consulting, Manhasset, N.Y., told Transport Topics.

“What we have understood from talking to many industry people is that 60,000 to 70,000 ’09 engines could have been stockpiled for use in this calendar year,” said Eric Starks, president of FTR Associates, Nashville, Ind. “From the latest figures, we’re finally starting to get to the end of this supply, though some could still be showing up through the third quarter.”

Daimler Trucks North America’s Freightliner brand was the Class 8 market leader with 19,651 new trucks shipped through June 30, however, 25% at most had 2010-

compliant engines.

“We can confirm 5,000 units [with 2010 engines] on the road now,” the spokeswoman for DTNA, Maria McCullough, told TT last week. She did not break down how many of those 2010 engines were in heavy- or medium-duty trucks.

Navistar Inc., second in new Class 8 deliveries through June, with 17,089 vehicles, did not ship any 2010-compliant trucks in the first six months of this year, spokesman Roy Wiley said.

Ward’s data also showed that manufacturers shipped 4,162 Class 8 trucks in the first six months of this year with Caterpillar engines and 2,299 trucks with Mercedes-Benz engines. Both brands were discontinued in North America after Dec. 31.

Robin Easton, treasurer of Paccar Inc., which owns both Peterbilt Motors and Kenworth Trucks, confirmed that the 4,085 Caterpillar engines that Paccar’s subsidiaries shipped in their trucks through June were 2009 models.

The Paccar companies also delivered 13,543 trucks with Cummins engines during the first half of the year that included an undisclosed mix of 2009 and 2010 models.

John Walsh, a spokesman with Mack Trucks, said he could not estimate how many of the 5,997 Mack engines mentioned in the Ward’s report could be 2009 models.

However, he did say that Mack “stopped taking orders for pre-EPA ’10 engine-equipped trucks last year. We have not built anything but EPA ’10 engine-equipped trucks since March.”

Sister company Volvo Trucks North America offered a similar comment through spokesman John Mies.

Ward’s said Cummins Inc. maintained its Class 8 engine dominance with 29,315 units in trucks shipped during the first six months of 2010. The company sold its engines to every major manufacturer except Mack Trucks, which uses only its own engines.

Cummins spokeswoman Carol Lavengood said last week the company has shipped — or will ship — 8,234 2010-compliant Class 8 engines to customers by the end of August, and 17,804 medium-duty compliant engines.

Cummins’ Class 8 engine market share for the first half of the year was 44.1% — more than twice as much as second-place Detroit Diesel Corp.

Lavengood said Cummins’ management has no knowledge of the mix between 2009 and 2010 products in Ward’s engine figures as they included engines completed last year and shipped to customers, out of Cummins’ control.

Ward’s measures engine numbers by gathering data from truck manufacturers about the number of trucks they shipped each month, with the brand of engine in each shipped truck, said Paul Zajac, the firm’s manager of industry data.

Detroit Diesel, part of DTNA, had 12,222 of its units installed, while Navistar’s MaxxForce brand was third with 7,902 engines.

Mack shipped 5,997 Class 8s and Volvo delivered 3,271 trucks with its engines. Volvo also offers Cummins’ power plants.

Paccar’s MX engine began to show up in June, with 73 put into Kenworths and 46 into Peterbilts.

Paccar executives have said they will import the engines from their Dutch subsidiary DAF Trucks until volumes pick up sufficiently to transfer production to its new engine plant in Columbus, Miss.

Ward’s said Navistar delivered 9,178 of its International trucks with Cummins engines in the first half of the year, and 7,902 with MaxxForce power plants.

“The Cummins engines were all ‘legacy’ models from 2009, before our agreement to offer Cummins engines terminated,” Navistar’s Wiley said.

Wiley noted that all MaxxForce engines used through June were also 2009 models, according to what he called a long-established Navistar plan.

Brady, of Commercial Motor Vehicle Consulting, said his data showed that large over-the-road fleets accounted for most of the purchases.

“Private fleets just travel locally and regionally, and they can extend the life cycle of their tractors more easily because they don’t have to worry about them breaking down in the middle of the desert or the Rocky Mountains,” Brady said.

“They had the rough initial experiences with the ’07 engines. ‘Why take a chance with 2010?’ they all asked themselves,” he said.