* DC - Fuel-efficient heavy trucks are on the horizon
-- Heavy-duty vehicles (more than 8,500 lbs. gross vehicle weight) are central to our economy: tractor-trailers carry goods, vocational trucks and heavy pickups help provide services, and transit buses transport passengers. In 2015, heavy-duty vehicles represented only 5% of on-road vehicles but consumed 30% of all highway fuel... Efforts to improve the fuel efficiency of heavy-duty vehicles got a major legislative boost in 2007 with the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), which mandated fuel efficiency standards for these vehicles. The "Phase 1" standards took advantage of existing "off-the-shelf" technologies to reduce heavy-duty fuel consumption by 15%, on average, from 2010 levels in 2017... DOT and EPA have proposed a second phase of the rule, which is expected to be adopted this summer. The proposed Phase 2 standards would reduce new heavy-duty vehicles’ fuel consumption by an additional 24%, on average, in 2027. Future trucks will be equipped with advanced technologies like waste heat recovery for engines, dual clutch transmissions, highly aerodynamic tractors, and fuel efficient trailers with skirts, gap reducers, and boat tails. These improvements are cost-effective, paying back upfront costs in fuel savings within 2 years (tractor trucks) to 6 years (vocational vehicles). The heavy-duty vehicle standards will further establish US leadership in advanced truck and engine manufacturing and, as proposed, save almost 1.5 million barrels of oil per day in 2040...
(Photo, by Dan Ocampo, Bakersfield Californian via AP: Trucks, cars and a motor home share I-5 near Frazier Park, Calif.) -- Washington, DC, USA - ACEEE, by Siddiq Khan - February 05, 2016Labels: trucks efficiency
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