Dee Kapur, truck group president of International Truck and Engine, reconfirmed the company's non-SCR position for 2010 emissions compliance in a presentation at the HDMA Heavy Duty Dialogue 2008 in Las Vegas. “We don't like it,” Kapur told his audience, calling the solution a “marooned technology” and a stopgap measure only.
In 2007, International announced its decision to pursue a non-SCR path to achieving the tougher 2010 limit on oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions in all International MaxxForce engines. SCR (selective catalytic reduction) uses a mixture of 34% ammonia and 66% water.
Although SCR has been in use in parts of Europe for some time, Kapur noted that ammonia is toxic, there is currently no SCR distribution network in the U.S., nor any program in place to regulate its proper use after the 2010 standard goes into effect. Better solutions will emerge and by 2012 to 2015 SCR will become a “marooned technology,” he said.
Kapur also discussed the changing global truck market. “There is only so much growth in North America now and many of you know it,” he said. It is “essential” to move toward globalization, he said, noting that the highest long-term GDP forecasts are for China and India, and the lowest are for the U.S. and Japan.
International is focusing on India, Kapur said, where there are lots of development opportunities, particularly in the areas of improving the driver environment, road and vehicle safety, and the capacity and speed of the infrastructure.
“Thirty million people per year are moving into the middle class in India,” Kapur noted. “International is going back to India. We were there from 1963 to 1985 as International Harvester with Mahindra & Mahindra.”
Mahindra International will be the name of the new joint-venture company and the brand name of the trucks built for India.
Kapur also called upon the industry to work together to drive acceptance of U.S. standards in other parts of the world to help create a “level playing field” in the global marketplace.