JAMA 一般社団法人日本自動車工業会 
 

ニュースリリース- 2005年11月02日

U.S., Japanese, and European Heavy-Duty-Vehicle and Engine manufacturers agree to continue their efforts to achieve harmonized emission and safety regulations.

Chicago, IL, November 1, 2005. Chief executives of the world's leading manufacturers of heavy-duty vehicles and engines from the United States, Japan, and Europe, met today to discuss challenges facing the industry.

The 3rd Global Commercial Vehicle Industry Meeting, chaired by International Truck and Engine Corporation CEO Daniel C. Ustian, follows similar meetings previously held in Amsterdam and Tokyo in 2003 and 2004. Today's discussions focused on identifying the policies and actions needed to continue the substantial progress already made in reducing emissions from heavy-duty vehicles worldwide into the next decade and to explore opportunities to further improve commercial vehicle safety.

In today's meeting, the executives emphasized the significance of advanced environmental performance, safety, and efficiency of road transport and agreed that while significant progress has already been achieved, cooperation among industry, government, and vehicle users is key to continuing to make advances on these issues.

Participants agreed there is a need to better inform the public and government authorities about the significant improvements that have already been achieved in commercial vehicle emissions reduction and safety over the past 20 years. They also noted the importance of internationally harmonized regulations and test procedures as a means to promote the rapid introduction and deployment of cost-effective new technologies to reduce emissions, increase energy efficiency, and promote safer vehicles in the future.

As a result of today's meeting, vehicle and engine manufacturers reconfirmed their commitment to cooperate in promoting harmonization of government regulations relating to a number of issues.

Emissions regulations are becoming more stringent in each region of the world, but standards and test methods differ from region to region. Consequently, manufacturers of commercial vehicles must perform different development and certification tests in each region that create extra costs. This involves great expenses, which are ultimately paid by consumers and the public. Since commercial vehicles are international products, harmonized testing and certification procedures could help reduce manufacturing costs. Therefore, the participants encourage their respective governments to adopt, as soon as they are developed, Global Technical Regulations on emissions certification testing (expected in 2006), On Board Diagnostics (expected in 2006) and on Off-cycle emissions (expected in 2007), thereby benefiting the environment, consumers, and heavy vehicle manufacturers.

To reduce nitrogen oxide and particulate matter emissions from heavy-duty vehicles, aftertreatment systems are being introduced into both Japan, the United States and Europe to meet increasingly stringent NOx and particulate matter heavy-duty emission regulations. While the challenges to successful implementation have been many, products are being introduced on schedule. The selection of technology to meet these standards will be strongly influenced by the need to balance emissions reductions with fuel economy concerns. One promising solution to NOx reduction aftertreatment, selective catalytic reduction (SCR), has exhibited a potential for improved fuel economy combined with low emissions. However, before SCR systems can be deemed practical on a global basis, concerns about the need for a urea distribution infrastructure, tamper resistance, urea freezing, and customer acceptance must be verified. In Europe, there are currently 800 public urea filling sites with a total of 2,000 expected by the end of the year. In Japan, 1,300 urea filling sites have already been completed. In Europe and Japan, tampering concerns have been addressed by ensuring that urea will be present and of appropriate quality. Freezing has been addressed by using both line and tank heaters. Customer acceptance is still a question due to the newness of these systems and resulting unfamiliarity. In summary, the major issues are being addressed and a significant number of industry members support the use of this technology.

As emissions requirements become more stringent, the link between market fuel quality becomes a critical factor for the introduction of new vehicle emissions technologies. However, in most parts of the world, refining economics and logistics drives fuel specification changes, not engine technology. In the developed world, this close relation is recognized, but in developing countries and transition economies this is generally not the case. These facts highlight the need for Global Fuel Regulations, in parallel with on-going efforts to globally harmonize vehicle emissions regulations. The participants agreed that priority should be given to this issue within the UN and that future fuel regulations should include sulfur limits. They also supported introducing an automotive diesel fuel standard into the ISO TC28 work program using the Worldwide Fuel Charter as the basis of that work.

In the area of safety, the participants noted the extensive and continuous efforts already underway in the worldwide truck manufacturing industry to incorporate designs and systems that improve the safety performance capabilities of heavy commercial trucks. It was emphasized, however, that manufacturers cannot ensure future success by their efforts alone. Improved driver training, licensing and traffic law enforcement programs, roadway design and maintenance upgrades, and sustained efforts by truck operators and motor carriers to manage the safety of their operations will all be necessary. Nevertheless, the participants agreed that additional progress can be achieved in the areas of crash protection and crash avoidance and agreed to pursue this work in a worldwide harmonized context.

Hakan Samuelsson, Chairman of the Executive Board of MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG, has issued an invitation to hold the next Global Commercial Vehicle Industry Meeting in Europe in 2007.

Members and staff of Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA), Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA), Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), and the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) participated in the meeting as well.

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