| Major commercial vehicle exhibitions in mainland
Europe have diminished in number since the industry downturn three or
four years ago. Those in Brussels, Paris and Turin having fallen by the
wayside, leaving only Hanover and Amsterdam to be held in the autumn of
alternate years. However, the UK's Commercial Vehicle Show has bucked
the trend, continuing to be held annually in the Spring at the NEC in
Birmingham and with growing support from both exhibitors and visitors.
At this year's event, organised jointly by the Society of Motor
Manufacturers and Traders, the Institute of Road Transport Engineers and
the Road Haulage Association, the number of stands exceeded 600 for the
first time, occupying practically the whole of the newer, 90,000m2, eastern
section of the NEC. Few manufacturers of any note stayed away, with the
exception of General Trailers whose products now, after a management buy-out
last year, once again carry the Crane Fruehauf name.
Visitors with an interest in vans flocked to the LDV stand where the last
remaining all-British market contender fulfilled its promise to unveil
its all-new replacement for today's badly ageing Pilot and Convoy models,
some of whose bodyshell componentry can be traced back to the BMC J4 van
of 40 years ago. The newcomer's main development was carried out in a
joint venture with Daewoo before the Korean company's passenger car business
was rescued from oblivion by General Motors, leaving the van project,
with its well-advanced plans to manufacture the new van in Poland as well
as by LDV in its Birmingham factory. LDV has shipped most of the tooling
from the Polish plant to the UK, to maximise production capacity, though
LDV boss Allan Amey was characteristically evasive about likely numbers.
In fact, the newcomer was only partially unveiled, one prototype vehicle
appearing behind a tinted plastic curtain, with few technical details
revealed. Its styling follows what, in the 2.6 to 3.5 tonne gvw segment
in Europe, is now the almost ubiquitous slope-fronted aerodynamic shape.
It has front-wheel drive, allowing a low load platform - although one
of its main rivals at up to about 3 tonnes, the latest Mercedes Vito,
has shown that rear drive need not incur a load height penalty.
Amey refused at the show to be drawn on the subject of engine sourcing.
That suggests the supply agreement has yet to be signed and sealed, which
is surprising if the promised full launch date of 'later this year' is
to be met. The Pilot and Convoy are powered by Peugeot and Ford diesels
respectively, but as makers of rival vans they have seemingly been ruled
out as suppliers for the newcomer. Insiders say the engine will be a 2.5
litre common-rail diesel from VM Motori in Italy - a company taken over
in the mid-90s by Detroit Diesel and now consequently under DaimlerChrysler
ownership. VM, it will be recalled, supplied the power units for diesel
versions of Ford Granada/Scorpio and Rover Sterling cars.
Other van novelties at Birmingham included a front-wheel drive Renault
Master 3.5-tonner converted in the UK by Leyland Product Developments
to 'zero emission' battery-electric drive. Dubbed the EV110, it was shown
on the Renault Trucks stand as a straightforward panel van and by LPD
in minibus form accommodating up to 16 passengers, while meeting the specific
'clean' urban area requirements of Lincoln City Council for its Walk &
Ride mobility scheme. The under-bonnet space houses a three-phase AC induction
motor able to deliver 50 kW (67 hp) continuously but with up to 80 kW
(107 hp) available when required, said to be capable of matching a diesel
master van's acceleration to 48 km/h.
Regenerative braking on the overrun helps maximise the mileage range attainable
from the unusual 270/440-volt Zebra Z36 sodium-nickel-chloride batteries,
which are claimed to provide twice the traction power of their lead-acid
equivalents. Unfortunately the perennial problem of traction battery weight
and bulk remains. The LPD converted electric van and minibus are each
about 300 kg heavier than their regular diesel counterparts and the batteries
take up a great deal of interior space; on the bus they prevent a front
passenger being carried.
More positively, on a single overnight battery charge, says LPD's Paul
Ainsworth, the vehicle was capable, in evaluation tests, of working a
full seven-hour day, involving a climb to Lincoln's hill-top cathedral
three times an hour. No clutch is employed in the driveline. The original
Renault five-speed manual gearbox is retained, but it is locked in second
gear. The characteristic of electric motive power of providing maximum
torque at zero revs obviates the need for gears.
Zero vehicle emissions are a goal that only prototype fuel cell machines
and battery-electrics like the special Renault Master - as well as many
thousand 'low technology' milk floats - can attain. However, at this year's
CV Show in Birmingham there was evidence at every turn of the efforts
being made to cut noxious tailpipe emissions from engine - mainly diesel
- driven trucks and vans.
All new vehicles of 3.5 tonnes gvw and over registered in the EU after
1st October 2006 will have to comply with Euro 4 emission limits - any
new vehicle model launched from October 2005 must meet the same requirements.
However, as could be seen at the NEC, manufacturers are pulling out the
stops to offer Euro 4 specifications even sooner - in some cases by autumn
this year - in anticipation of a limited demand from buyers, particularly
in Germany, who want to benefit from proposed environmentally-driven financial
incentives (linked to the controversial Maut road tolling scheme, the
distance-based infrastructure charging system for heavy trucks in Germany).
Early Euro 4 (and subsequently Euro 5) compliance incentives are also
planned in the UK, as an extension of the 'clean vehicle' schemes already
in place funded by the government through the Energy Saving Trust. They
are designed to encourage transport operators to pay the inevitable higher
prices for Euro 4 standard vehicles before compliance becomes mandatory.
No Euro 4-compliant trucks are yet on sale in the UK. However, much of
the hardware which is going to be needed to achieve the tougher standard
- either as original or retrofit equipment (the latter mainly to satisfy
local, mainly urban, clean air initiative schemes) - is already being
promoted and was on display at Birmingham.
MAN's new 10.5 litre D20 engine (AE, April), designed to meet Euro 4 and
5 requirements but initially programmed for today's Euro 3 limits, had
its first public showing. Its use of cooled EGR (exhaust gas recirculation)
rather than downstream urea-fed SCR (selective catalytic reduction) to
cut NOx levels engendered lively debate at the show about the relative
merits of the two systems. Every other manufacturer has shown a preference
for SCR, though Scania and Volvo look set to offer EGR as a lower-cost
'fit and forget' option, which will bring an unavoidable fuel consumption
penalty.
Cummins, the US-owned supplier of engines to several UK truck and bus
makers, unveiled two new power units with the potential to meet Euro 4
and 5 legislation. The 8.9 litre ISLe Plus diesel is a Europeanised' and
upgraded version of the ISL engine sold in North America for the last
five years or so, primarily for bus applications. Its original in-house
developed CAPS (Cummins Accumulator Pressure System) fuelling has been
replaced by what the company is calling its HPCR (high-pressure common-rail)
system which has emerged from a joint venture with Bosch. The new system's
pump has evolved from the CAPS pump; as such it is engine oil rather than
fuel lubricated and therefore avoids possible problems associated with
poor fuel lubricity as sulphur content gets ever lower.
Bosch is supplying the injectors, which are said to be capable of delivering
a pressure at the nozzle as high as 2,000 bar. Rail pressure is more like
1,800 bar, but some pulse amplification is gained in the rail-to-injector
connecting pipes. Elements of the HPCR system are likely to find their
way into the next-generation common-rail system - provisionally dubbed
XPI - being developed by the Cummins-Scania joint venture team which produced
today's HPI unit-injector system seen on several heavy-duty diesels from
the US company and its Swedish partner.
The ISLe develops up to 350 hp (260 kW) at 2,100 rpm, with a torque curve
rising to 1,550 Nm (1,143 lb ft) at 1,400 rpm, making it a serious rival
to other truck diesels of around nine litres capacity, from Caterpillar,
Volvo and later this year a five-cylinder Scania unit. Cummins' challenge
now is to get a UK vehicle manufacturer to offer the new diesel. Foden
says it is evaluating the ISLe, as an attractively light - but hopefully
durable - engine to go into rigid eight-wheelers, where payload is invariably
at a premium. Less promisingly, the biggest Cummins bus OEM in Europe
is the TransBus division of Mayflower, whose activities have been thrown
into question by the group's financial problems.
Alongside the ISLe on the Cummins stand at Birmingham was its newly released
natural gas fuelled ultra-low-emission and quiet running counterpart,
the L Gas Plus, developed under the Cummins joint venture with the Canadian
Westport Innovations. A spark-ignited engine designed to run on CNG or
LNG, it comes in a single 320 hp (239 kW) output rating, backed by up
to 1,356 Nm (1,000 lb ft) of torque. It is effectively a larger capacity
- 8.9 litre - derivative of Cummins-Westport's established 8.3 litre C
Gas Plus. Brad Douville, C-W's director of automotive business, told AE
that new algorithms in the control electronics had brought a sixfold improvement
in reliability compared with earlier Cummins gas engines.
Its operating envelope was more closely controlled, he said, in order
to keep the engine away from potentially damaging conditions, especially
those caused, on the one hand by knock, and on the other by misfire. It
had therefore been possible to make the engine much more tolerant of poor
fuel quality, where an excess of undesirable nitrogen and/or ethane could
result in a methane number as low as 65. An oxidation catalyst comes with
the L Gas Plus package. It was needed for the North American market, explained
Douville, in order to bring down gaseous hydrocarbons (HC) in the exhaust
to meet US EPA limits introduced in 2002.
On its NEC show stand, Caterpillar - Cummins' only all-American rival
in heavy-duty automotive diesels - showed one of its line-up of truck
diesels embodying what the company calls its ACERT (advanced combustion
emissions reduction technology) system, which is designed to achieve EPA
2002 and 2007 compliance without either EGR or SCR. The 12.5 litre C13
- a longer stroke version of the familiar 11.9 litre C12 - develops up
to 430 hp (320 kW) in US specification, as displayed in Birmingham. However,
it is expected to be rated at up to 500 hp (372 kW) under Euro 3 and 4
certification test conditions.
ACERT, a concept derided by all Cat's North American competitors who claim
it is just a variation on the Miller Cycle, where - using variable valve
timing - the intake valves stay open for part of the compression stroke,
so that turbocharger boost pressure as well as the dimensional constraints
of the cylinder space determine the pressure rise. The system also involves
the use of twin (series) turbochargers, more responsive and sophisticated
electronic controls and a big oxidation catalyst.
Luc Richard, the company's European engine manager, says the C13 is being
trialled by its one existing OEM in Europe, namely Foden. The engine will
meet Euro 3 with little modification, but for Euro 4 a Johnson Matthey
CRT particulate trap is expected to be necessary.
Lubrizol Engine Control Systems, a division of the world's largest supplier
of fuel and lubricant additives, introduced a particulate filter for older
diesel vehicles, typically city buses that can use a depot mains-powered
heater element for regeneration - ie burning off - of the accumulated
soot. It is a principle which, points out Lubrizol, has been employed
for off-highway - mainly stationary - diesels for 30 years or more.
The heater can be incorporated into the on-board filter installation,
typically plugged into a mains electric outlet at the end of each working
day. A back-pressure monitoring kit comes as standard, telling the driver/operator
when the filter is starting to clog. Or it can remain at the depot, ready
to receive a soot-laden filter made easily removable from the vehicle
- and swapped for a newly regenerated (ie clean) one - allowing the vehicle
to resume work immediately.
Known as the Unikat Combifilter, it is claimed to have the capacity to
remove more than 85 per cent of particulate matter emissions, even from
Euro 1 compliant - or older - vehicles, on the kind of urban delivery
cycles where exhaust temperatures rarely if ever reach the levels necessary
to ensure regeneration of catalyst reliant filters like Johnson Matthey's
CRT, Engelhard's DPX and Lubrizol's own, lesser known, Purifilter. The
latter is notable for its silicon carbide - rather than cheaper cordierite
- substrate, to which the catalyst (as on the rival DPX) is directly applied.
It is able to withstand much higher burn-off temperatures than cordierite
and because SiC is also a better heat conductor, regeneration occurs more
rapidly.
The mains heater can, however, be specified in a combined package with
the Purifilter, in variable-duty vehicle applications, enabling catalyst-assisted
regeneration to be augmented as and when required. An alternative is to
add the heater to 'stimulate' an oxidation catalyst, making it better
able to remove hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and non-solid PM
in the exhaust.
Johnson Matthey's established CRT self-regenerating particle filter was
shown by Eminox, JM's UK market 'canner', in a shorter, so-called 'drum'
configuration. The separate entry catalyst and filter substrates are arranged
concentrically rather than end-to-end, so that the unit can take the place
of similar-shaped silencer boxes, especially on short-wheelbase tractor
units.
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