Westport Mulls Future of 15-Liter LNG Engine

This story appears in the Oct. 7 print edition of Transport Topics.

An executive with Westport Innovations said the company has spoken with customers about discontinuing its 15-liter liquefied natural gas engine because it may not be economically viable.

However, Gordon Exel, Westport’s vice president of sales and marketing, told Transport Topics, “If demand is in the market, we’ll continue to keep this product going. That’s really, over the last month, the conclusion we’ve come to.”

After the company sought customer feedback about potentially ending engine production, “The order books started opening right up,” he added.

Launched in 2007, the Westport HD15 is the only 15-liter natural-gas engine currently available for the North American trucking market. It is based on Cummins Inc.’s ISX15 diesel engine, but it uses Westport’s high-pressure, direct-injection technology.

The engine is available in trucks from Paccar Inc.’s two operating companies — Kenworth Truck Co. and Peterbilt Motors Co.

Several recent media reports said Westport already had decided to discontinue the 15-liter engine.

Kyle Treadway, president of Kenworth Sales Co., told TT last week he had been told several months ago by a Westport representative the company planned to cease production of the HD15. Treadway added he had not heard from the company since that discussion.

“We’d like to hear some direction from them because it affects our lease and rental program,” Treadway said.

In addition to the HD15, Westport offers two other natural-gas engines for the North American trucking market through its joint venture with engine maker Cummins Inc. — the 9-liter Cummins Westport ISL G and the new 12-liter Cummins Westport ISX12 G.

Those engines, which use spark-ignited technology, can run on either CNG or LNG. The ISX12 G entered full production in August after beginning on a limited basis in April.

Westport’s long-term approach, Exel said, is to work more closely with truck manufacturers to offer HPDI-based natural-gas systems in integrated engines and chassis.

In May 2012, Volvo Trucks announced plans to launch a 13-liter natural-gas engine with Westport’s HPDI technology. In March, the truck maker said VNL day cabs with the D13-LNG engine will be available for order in the second half of 2014.

Westport also is talking to other truck manufacturers, Exel said.

That Volvo engine represents a departure from the way Westport currently produces its 15-liter product

Today, Paccar orders an engine, which is shipped to Westport’s facility in Vancouver, British Columbia, where Westport outfits it with HPDI components before shipping it back to Paccar, Exel said. All those steps add to the cost.

“It’s a fairly expensive solution compared to what we think we can do through an integrated OEM,” he said.

Exel also said the HD15 still is the only product that meets the needs of certain fleets. For example, the engine is the only natural-gas option available in Australia, he said.

The Westport engine also continues to fill an important niche domestically, Exel said.

“In the tougher duty cycles, there’s really nothing else in the market beyond a 12-liter today, and some customers still have that requirement, which we’re clearly seeing,” he said.

Sales of the 15-liter were “slow to start the year” in 2013, due in part to anticipation of the ISX12 G, Exel said. “But once we started talking about possibly ‘end-of-lifing’ this thing, it has totally turned. We’re at capacity at our plant.”

Exel said Westport has sold more than 1,000 of the 15-liter engines since its launch in 2007.

However, in its financial statements, Westport said it sold only three of its HD15 engines in the first quarter of 2013, down from 151 in the same period last year.

 Westport did not report 15-liter shipment volume for the second quarter but said sales declined from the 75 units shipped a year earlier.

The company previously said it shipped 393 of its HD15 engines in 2012, up from 274 units in 2011 and 71 in 2010.

A truck outfitted with the new ISX12 G provides a faster return-on-investment than a model with the Westport 15-liter, according to Kennon Guglielmo, chief technology officer at Enovation Controls, a supplier of engine control and emissions systems.

In a presentation last month at a conference sponsored by ACT Research, Guglielmo said the purchase price for a truck with the Westport HD15 is about $90,000 higher than a diesel model, with a payback time of about 50 months based on fuel savings with LNG.

That compares with a $45,000 price premium and an estimated payback timeframe of 21 months for a truck with the ISX12 G running on CNG, he said.

Cummins is planning to offer a new, 15-liter spark-ignited natural-gas engine, the ISX15 G, which is on track to launch in early 2016.

“We believe that the ISX15 G introduction will cause the demise of [the HD15],” Guglielmo said.