A fuel economy standard for lorries?
Issue: Autumn 2009
Last December I had the pleasure of attending the first public hearing of a US Congressional committee set up to examine the case for introducing a fuel economy standard for new trucks, or 'heavy-duty trucks' as the Americans call them to distinguish them from the SUV type of truck that half the population drive. This would require all new lorries, to use our parlance, to achieve a minimum number of miles per gallon on a standard drive cycle.
By Professor Alan McKinnon
US legislators have been keen on this approach to raising the fuel efficiency of the vehicle fleet. Following the 1973-4 oil crisis they enacted the Energy Policy Conservation Act (EPCA), which imposed the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards on automobile manufacturers from 1978. These CAFE standards are now back in the news as the Obama administration is planning to raise them by 5% per annum from the current levels (of 27.5 mpg for cars and 23 mpg for SUVs) to an overall average 35.5 mpg for cars / SUVs by 2016.
In the EU, CO2 standards for new cars are being phased in from 2012, with all car manufacturers required to meet an average CO2 emission level of 130 gm / km across their fleets by 2015. The European Commission is now ‘developing a legislative proposal’ to cut CO2 emissions from new vans and this too is likely to involve the imposition of a standard.
So how long might it be before we see similar fuel or CO2 standards introduced for new lorries?
f you live in Japan, the date will be 2015. By that year the Japanese government will be applying a ‘top runner’ fuel efficiency standard to trucks. Its ‘top runner’ concept aims to make the best-in-class performance the average by a target date. For trucks this will entail improving the average fuel efficiency from 6.3 kms / litre in 2002 to 7.1 kms / litre in 2015.
Different target improvements have been specified for different vehicle weight classes. Tax incentives are being used to promote this move to higher efficiency standards, including a purchase tax reduction of 1 – 2% on new vehicles meeting the target fuel efficiency standards. 
European and US legislators might be well advised to learn from the Japanese experience before attempting something similar. The conventional wisdom until recently has been that it is impractical to apply a fuel economy standard on new lorries. They are, after all, much more heterogeneous than cars or vans, varying to a much greater extent in design, weight class, function and ancillary equipment. Tractor units on articulated vehicles can haul many different sizes, shapes and weights of trailer with widely varying degrees of streamlining.
Would we need separate fuel economy standards for tractor and trailer manufacturers?
In the US, companies typically buy truck engines, gearboxes and chasses from separate manufacturers, further complicating the definition of a standard. At least in Europe there is greater integration of the truck manufacturing process. Perhaps the pursuit of a fuel economy standard for new lorries is fundamentally misguided. After all, companies buying new vehicles have access to detailed fuel efficiency data at the time of purchase. They clearly have a strong financial incentive, particularly in a country like the UK with high fuel duty, to factor this information into their buying decision.
High fuel prices, well above those in the US, have made fuel economy one of the main competitive drivers in the European truck market. With such strong commercial pressures on vehicle manufacturers to improve fuel efficiency what would we gain from the adoption of a regulatory standard?
The life-time fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of a lorry are also much more strongly influenced by the way it is driven, loaded and maintained than by the fuel efficiency it achieves when it rolls off the production line. Fuel conservation programmes should continue to focus on the operation and utilisation of trucks and not be distracted by the complexities of a legally-binding system of fuel economy standards.
Professor Alan McKinnon is Director of the Logistics Research Centre at Heriot-Watt University.
Further info: The Logistics Research Centre, Esmee Fairbairn Research Centre, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14
Published: 05/10/2009
