Navistar Finishes Field Tests On 2010 Engines After 18 Mos.

By Frederick Kiel, Staff Reporter

This story appears in the June 15 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Navistar Inc. said it has completed 18 months of laboratory and field tests of its “advanced” version of exhaust gas recirculation engine technology that will be used to meet 2010 federal emission requirements.

“We are on track with our strategy of 2010 emissions compliance through the use of our [EGR]-only solution and are ahead of schedule in some cases,” Jack Allen, president of Navistar’s North American truck group, said in a statement issued July 13.

Navistar, the only truck maker that will meet the 2010 rules with EGR, said the tests included “cold-weather testing in northern Minnesota.”

Company spokesman Roy Wiley told Transport Topics he could not say when Navistar planned to submit the engine for certification to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Navistar said the next phase of “final validation testing” will take place “at high altitude and high temperature.”

“Now that the warm summer months are here, Navistar engineers will travel to desert-like conditions in Arizona and Nevada to complete its 2010 hot weather testing,” the statement said. “Navistar has more than 60 test vehicles in operation today, logging thousands of miles each and every week.”

All other engine makers will reduce nitrogen oxide in the aftertreatment using selective catalytic reduction. The SCR manufacturers have also said that their vehicles are undergoing rigorous testing.

In a separate announcement, Navistar said that it has laid off about 275 contract workers at its West Point, Miss., factory, where it builds military vehicles, after losing a competitive bid for a new armored truck.

On July 2, the Pentagon awarded a $1.06 billion contract to build 2,244 armored all-terrain trucks for U.S. troops in Afghanistan to Oshkosh Corp.

“We let some 275 people go from our West Point plant, though they weren’t permanent Navistar employees, but contract workers,” Wiley told TT. “About 200 assembly line workers remain at West Point, also all contract workers.”