Pursuit of high fuel efficiency has always been a market imperative for this segment. Fuel costs are the first or second highest operating cost of most trucking operations, and the competition for fuel efficiency has always been an integral part of the market.
Many initial gains in fuel efficiency will be realized through improvements in the efficiency of the diesel engines. This will include further advances in combustion efficiency, waste heat recovery, improved efficiency through advanced turbocharging and fuel injection. Other technologies such as lower rolling resistance tires and aerodynamics, idle reduction strategies and other approaches may also be suitable as a total vehicle approach.
Some vehicles may be more appropriate for some solutions than others. For example long haul trucks can benefit from aerodynamic improvements that cut vehicle drag and save fuel because they operate at higher average speeds. However local pickup and delivery trucks would not benefit from aerodynamics but would benefit from increased use of hybrid powertrains because of the stop and go nature of their operations.
Many of the proposed technology solutions are “off the shelf” and the rule advances their wider spread implementation.
