Frost research sheds light on new opportunities with idling laws

Frost & Sullivan’s Strategic Analysis of Emission and Idling Reduction Technologies for EPA 2010 and Idling Regulations Compliance provides a comprehensive overview of the key challenges brought about by the EPA 2010 and idling regulations on the heavy-truck industry.

Market overview
Never before has the North American heavy-duty truck industry faced such a complex regulatory environment synthesized by a collection of disparate and progressively strengthening environment-focused regulations. The impending regulations incumbent on the industry represent issues ranging from diesel engine emissions to idling.

The promulgation and implementation of these regulations, spanning multivariate domains, demand the development and introduction of innovative technologies with minimal enhancements to the cost of the host truck. The industry is now focusing on the impact and opportunity analysis of various environment-focused regulations such as the EPA 2010 emission regulation and other possible regulations such as a federal-level idling regulation.

Interestingly, there was a long drawn out debate as to whether the lean-NOx trap (LNT) technology or selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology will be the pivotal aftertreatment technology for meeting EPA 2010 emission limits. While vehicle manufacturers and powertrain suppliers with European connections advocated SCR technology, some North American suppliers and the EPA favored LNT technology.

"Concerns over the lack of a comprehensive urea infrastructure and the possibility of tampering with the SCR system led the EPA to lean toward a non-urea based technology for North American trucks," notes the analyst of this research service. "However, the higher up front and lifecycle costs of lean-NOx traps and the associated fuel-penalty issue compelled truck makers and powertrain systems suppliers to focus on SCR as the aftertreatment technology for EPA 2010 regulation compliance."

Idling regulations promise considerable opportunities
Idling regulations directly affect over 2.5 million heavy-trucks used for long-haul purposes in North America. More than 650,000 of such trucks have sleeper cabs, which offer an attractive growth potential to developers of cost-effective and pertinent idling solutions. The North American and global emission reduction and fuel-conservation efforts are expected to gain considerable momentum in the foreseeable future, underlining the need for innovative technologies such as idling reduction systems and solutions.

This will result in considerable expansion of the market’s perimeter beyond North American boundaries to attractive markets in Europe, Asia Pacific, Australia, and South America. Moreover, truck makers and OEMs are realizing revenue growth opportunities associated with the integration of these systems. This is creating the foundation for the development and growth of an original equipment market for idling reduction technologies in North America as well as globally.

The current situation demands North American companies to work closely with regulators and other stakeholders across the globe to develop harmonized market feasible emission reduction solutions that can sell worldwide. North American truck makers and powertrain suppliers have finally started planning and executing global market penetration strategies.

"The current regulatory environment related to emission reduction offers them the opportunity to leverage their technology proficiency and innovativeness in powertrain and aftertreatment technologies," says the analyst. "This will lead to creation of scalable convergent solutions for the local market that can be effectively applied across multiple countries and markets."

This whitepaper features extensive analysis of the regulations, the associated challenges and opportunities, and comparison of the key technologies that promise regulation compliance at most attractive price points. The technologies that offer commendable ROI and payback are identified.

Key technology and market trends related to the impending regulations are presented. The growth opportunities associated with these regulations are derived and strategic recommendations based upon extensive analysis of existing and emerging market and technology trends are discussed. The underlying objective of this whitepaper is to offer market participants strategic recommendations to enable to profit from the impending emission and idling reduction regulations.