Long Haul: EPA Sets 2027 Efficiency Standards for Trucks and Big Rigs

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With downsized engines, turbocharging, electrified powertrains, wind-cheating aerodynamics, safety-mandated proportions, and lightweighting, among many other strategies, modern passenger vehicles are dramatically different than those of a decade ago—and, more than ever, that’s a product of regulation. Tougher fuel-economy regulations adopted in 2011 are a strong influence and continue to ramp up toward a required fleet average of more than 50 mpg by 2025. Now, that rapid change is about to sweep across the truck market, affecting everything from heavy-duty pickups to buses, airport shuttle vans, garbage trucks and, yes, even semis.

With the release of final draft language this week, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have jointly adopted tighter second-round standards for larger trucks that complements radical changes for personal and family vehicles. In all, it’s a more aggressive plan that, from 2018 to 2027, will dramatically improve the fuel economy of the nation’s big rigs and cut carbon-dioxide emissions.

Proposed standards were released last year. Compared with that earlier version, the new rules aim to add 10 percent to the total carbon-reduction target. And although it’s truly too early to tell, it may entirely change the math of why you would opt for a heavy-duty pickup over a light-duty one.

It’s a necessary change, the administration argues. With passenger-vehicle fuel use on the way down and trucks on a fuel-swilling uptick, their trend lines are slated to cross by 2030.

Keep Diesel Honest

Diesel might continue to be a popular solution across the commercial-truck field, but a new diesel-engine test method, to be phased in for 2021, will make it a little more challenging for vehicle makers and should more closely mirror the real-world use of such engines. These standards also appear to build in some lessons learned from the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal, including “repeatable and accurate test procedures, enhanced enforcement audits, and protection against defeat devices,” as the agency sums.

The first EPA greenhouse-gas and fuel-efficiency standards for these types of trucks were approved in 2011, with Phase 1 rules going into effect for heavy-duty pickups in 2016 and tougher standards phased in for tractor-trailers beginning in 2018. Those standards, which call out efficiency in terms of gallons of fuel used per ton-mile, already aim for about a 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption for big rigs versus pre-2014 levels (with graduated increases each year).

These so-called Phase 2 standards just released will take effect beginning in 2021, and they’re anticipated to lower the consumption—and corresponding carbon-dioxide emissions—of semis, heavy commercial trucks, and heavy-duty pickups (medium-duty vehicles) by higher amounts: 25, 24, and 16 percent, respectively, over the next 10 years. It will save more than 80 billion gallons of fuel over the service life of the vehicles, amounting to 1.1 billion metric tons of carbon pollution—about the same associated with electricity and power for all U.S. homes for a year.

Proposing and finalizing the Phase 2 results took more than 400 meetings with stakeholders, the EPA notes, and involved a large amount of public feedback. To those concerns and feedback, the final version allows “manufacturers to choose their own technology mix and giving them the lead time needed to ensure those technologies are reliable and durable,” and it reflects increased flexibility so as to minimize impacts on small business.

Heavy-duty pickups will continue to have fuel-consumption standards based on payload, towing, and the presence of four-wheel drive. Technologies like electrification or engine stop/start are not required to meet the standards, the EPA emphasizes.

Greens the Fleet through Dollars Saved

The new standards will save commercial operators an estimated $170 billion over the lifetime of the vehicles through their rather dramatic lowering of fuel bills. There’s no pressure to retrofit existing trucks, but the hope is that fleet operators will replace them over time with newer ones because their running costs will be so much lower.

The current fuel consumption for a loaded big rig is about 6 mpg. But the Cummins-Peterbilt SuperTruck, a demonstration long-haul truck, could achieve more than 10 mpg. And the Freightliner SuperTruck has already shown that it can effectively double the distance on a gallon—to a claimed 12.2 mpg—without affecting load or performance. The Freightliner solution didn’t rely on one single thing, of course, which lays down some parallels to what’s been happening to cars: optimized aerodynamics, a downsized engine, hybrid and solar wizardry, and integrated driver-assistance technologies that ease the long haul.

The new regulations may also spur a new kind of truck builder. Nikola Motor Company plans to build an all-electric semi, and even Tesla is planning pickups and semis.

What hasn’t yet been detailed is whether the EPA plans any portal through which fleet operators or business owners can compare models’ tested fuel-efficiency numbers. We’ve reached out to the agency for comment and will update this piece if any such plan is in place. But you can bet that with these requirements, vehicle makers will be doing plenty to tout their efficiency improvements.

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