Navistar Unveils Trucks with ‘American’ EGR

This story appears in the Oct. 26 print edition of Transport Topics.

CHICAGO — An executive of Navistar Inc. has moved to separate his company from its mostly foreign-owned truck maker competitors, telling reporters, “We are going to offer customers a distinctive technology for North America” in the company’s 2010 products.

“We’re not German, we’re not Swedes, we’re Americans,” said Dee Kapur, president of Navistar’s Truck Group, referring to Daimler Trucks North America and Volvo Trucks North America, owned respectively by German truck maker Daimler AG and Swedish manufacturer AB Volvo.

Kapur spoke here at an Oct. 15 press event, in which Navistar demonstrated several models of its 2010 trucks and engines and said they would perform the “same or better” than its competitors without needing any new components or additive liquids.

Daimler and Volvo trucks, as well as those made by U.S. manufacturer Paccar Inc., will use selective catalytic reduction technology to meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s strict nitrogen-oxide emission standard. SCR requires injection of urea-based diesel exhaust fluid.

All current North American engine producers use exhaust gas recirculation technology. European truck makers have used SCR since 2006.

Navistar gave trucking reporters an opportunity to drive what it said were production model trucks with engines built to meet 2010 federal emission standards. The tested trucks included an over-the-road Class 8 ProStar with a 13-liter engine, a vocational Class 7 WorkStar and a Class 6-7 DuraStar.

Navistar contended that SCR systems will add 300 pounds to 500 pounds of weight in components and DEF, which the fleet owner and driver will be responsible for maintaining to keep the engine running properly.

Ramin Younessi, group vice president of product development and strategy for Navistar’s Truck Group, said the company has tested its new EGR system for 10 million miles.

“We have put the engines through two summers and two winters of testing so far,” Younessi said. “This includes over-the-road, buses and severe service, and we will do another winter of testing, still.”

Younessi said Navistar’s 13-liter engine will deliver up to 475 horsepower and “will have equal performance to the other 13- and 15-liter engines” in the market.

Navistar’s 11-liter and 13-liter “big-bore engines will be EPA compliant in the box,” he said, “with one set of engine hardware with many different ratings, with horsepower from 370 to 475 and multiple torques.”

“There is a myth that the engines will run hot with EGR,” needed to meet EPA 2010 standards, Younessi said. “The truth is that our advanced EGR will have a cooling system and lower combustion temperatures. The laws of physics do not change.”

Younessi apparently aimed his comments at a competitor’s criticisms of Navistar’s technology, that its EGR system would mean much higher engine temperatures.

Navistar said in its literature that its 2010 system will use “improved” combustion through a “unique combustion bowl design, as well as increased injection pressure, sophisticated controls and calibration and state-of-the-art air-path management” to prevent the formation of NOx in the engine, rather than treat it in the exhaust system, as SCR does.

“We will have the least amount of changes for 2010 in our big-bore engines, since they were introduced just two years ago with the ProStar, with an engine block designed for 2010,” Younessi said.

He said that Navistar’s technology has reduced engine noise in the cab by 65% to 70% over similar-sized engines.

“We get complaints from some people that they can’t hear the engine,” Younessi said. “All of those buzzes, rattles and squeaks, all of those ugly noises by those little pads between parts, they’re all disappearing.”

He said that “another big deal was the myth that all trucks are getting heavier.” “The ProStar will go up just 50 pounds in 2010,” he said.

Younessi said the models that Navistar brought to Chicago for reporters to drive and examine would be just as efficient overall in fuel use as SCR models.

“They say that one of their aerodynamic models with an SCR engine will get 3% to 4% more fuel efficiency” than their present models, he said of a competitor’s assertion. “We’re going to be darn near the same, if they hit their claims, and all of our trucks will perform the same or better than theirs.”

He said that SCR advocates made their fuel claims based on just the powertrain.

“It’s a matter of the overall vehicle, not just the fuel economy,” Younessi said, adding that the powertrain accounted for less than 20% of a linehaul tractor-trailer’s fuel efficiency.

He said that Navistar soon would introduce even more efficient versions of its aerodynamic models.

“We can do a lot of things next year on aerodynamic drag,” Younessi said. “You should go to Mid-America [Trucking Show] next year.” The show is scheduled in Louisville, Ky., in March.