Volvo Trucks North America’s D11 and D13 engines have been certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board as meeting upcoming 2010 diesel emissions standards, the most stringent in the world. This means Volvo heavy-duty trucks will continue their essential service to the nation’s economy, but with a much smaller environmental impact.
Volvo is the first truck manufacturer to have its heavy-duty diesel engines certified for 2010 by both EPA and CARB. These engines have been fully certified to meet EPA’s stringent standards without the use of emissions credits.
Volvo Trucks’ emissions technology for EPA2010 does more than cut emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) to near-zero levels. Using selective catalytic reduction (SCR) to reduce NOx, Volvo improved fuel economy and reduced emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2. This fights global warming and reduces dependence on imported petroleum. SCR also helps eliminate active regenerations of the diesel particulate filter (DPF), which saves additional fuel.
“EPA’s certification of these engines is a crucial milestone in Volvo’s journey to producing the cleanest diesel engines in the world,” said Scott Kress, senior vice president – sales & marketing. “We are already building EPA’10 trucks and are fully on track for large-scale production next year, which will help make the air cleaner, use fuel more efficiently and save money for our customers.”
All heavy-duty diesel truck engines produced after January 1, 2010 must meet the new standards. Volvo has extensive experience with SCR technology, having accumulated 5 million miles with 50 test vehicles in customer field test fleets in North America. Volvo also has billions of miles of real-world experience with SCR in other markets. The new SCR system was added to the proven Volvo engine platform, which has been used in North America since 2007 and was already well-known for its low emissions and high fuel economy.
“Volvo Trucks has complete confidence in our engines and SCR technology,” Kress said. “We’ve used our global resources to develop leading engine and emission technologies as the standards became increasingly tighter in 2002, 2007 and now 2010. In these challenging times, our customers need very reliable, productive and efficient products, and that is what Volvo’s experience and capability delivered for 2010.”
Volvo Trucks North America’s operations and products are guided by the company’s three core values: Safety, Quality and Environmental Care. The Volvo VN and VHD trucks are assembled in the United States at the New River Valley Plant in Dublin, Virginia, while Volvo engines for North America are assembled in Hagerstown, Maryland. Both plants are certified to ISO14001 environmental and ISO9001 quality standards.
Volvo Trucks North America is part of the Volvo Group, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks, buses and construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications, aerospace components and services, and one of the world’s leading producers of heavy-diesel engines (9-16 liter). The Group also provides complete solutions for financing and service. The Volvo Group, which employs about 100,000 people, has production facilities in 19 countries and sells their products in more than 180 markets. Volvo Group sales for 2008 amounted to over $46 billion. The Volvo Group is a publicly-held company headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Shares are listed on Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchange and are traded OTC in the U.S.
