Navistar may seek changes in emission standards
Date: 17-Sep-04
Country: USA
Author: Karen Padley
Dan Ustian, the company's chairman, president and chief executive officer, told the Reuters Autos and Manufacturing Summit there might be a way to meet the spirit of the regulations while making the standards more business friendly.
"In my mind, I don't believe the trucking industry has presented to the government answers that can meet the intent of the EPA regulations and perhaps live within some better corporate environment for costs," Ustian told the summit, held in Detroit. "Maybe just a little relief would make a big difference."
He said the company is waiting for data to bolster its case, but plans to press ahead regardless of who wins the U.S. presidential race this fall.
Ustian noted the new standards will be apply only to emissions from new engines. "But we have technologies that will hit all the old products out there, that will have 20 times the effect on clean air," he said.
He said the company may propose retrofitting its older engines while using the latest technology in its new engines.
The upcoming emissions standards will apply to nitrous oxide, a component of acid rain, as well as particulates, which have been linked to respiratory ailments.
Ustian also said he expects truck orders to remain strong until 2007. He noted truck tonnage remains strong and some of the orders the company has received cover two or three years.
He said he does not expect a large order surge ahead of the new emission standards, as occurred in 2002, because truckers should have more time to test the newest technology.
"In '02, when we were forced to make a quick change in the product...there was concern about fuel economy and the durability and reliability of products," Ustian said. "Those concerns are behind us."
He said the company has been able to increase its share of the market for heavy-duty trucks to about 18 percent to 19 percent from 14 percent a year ago.
Ustian credited efforts to improve service at its distributors in the past few years.
(News from the Reuters Autos and Manufacturing Summit will be delivered throughout the day Tuesday through Thursday to Reuters terminals and to the Reuters.com Web site, http://reuters.com)
