Longhaul heavy tractor-trailers could achieve a fuel economy of more than 10 miles per gallon by 2030 — from today’s approximately 5 mpg to 6.5 mpg range — according to an analysis prepared for Congress by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The analysis, completed last month at the request of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), studied potential savings in greenhouse gas emissions and oil across the transportation sector.
It concluded that the heavy trucking sector could achieve fuel economy gains through the use of traditional EPA SmartWay technologies as well as improved engine technologies such as those being developed by the 21st Century Truck Partnership, a federally funded joint technology development effort by several diesel engine manufacturers under the aegis of the Department of Energy.
“For the first time ever, EPA has opened up their window and let us look in to see what their logic might be as they approach a regulation on fuel economy through setting carbon standards for trucks,” said Glen Kedzie, VP and environmental affairs counsel for American Trucking Associations.
EPA said the analysis was not done as part of a regulatory plan, but was a “broad scoping exercise” based on the application of known technologies, operational improvements and travel efficiency measures identified and analyzed by the agency’s experts.
