How to Prepare for the EPA's 2027 Emissions Regulations

in December of 2022 the EPA made an announcement that they had set their standards for heavy duty vehicles for the 2027 year now we've known for some time that these regulations were coming and now that they're here and we have a little bit more insight into what they are we now are starting to understand exactly how it's going to impact the trucking industry and by extension that impacts people who sell replacement parts service and who Supply Commodities things like engine oil in this episode I've assembled three subject matter experts to talk about some of these implications we're going to talk about it from the perspective of the truck manufacturers we're going to talk about it from the perspective of the diesel emission system and we're going to talk about how this is influencing a new standard in engine oil this is a packed episode with so much good information thank you [Music] so to start let me introduce my first subject matter expert a returning guest on the show hi I'm John adamu with Northwest heavy duty co-founder of manufacturing rep agency that's based out in the Seattle area we're talking about regulations John and we're talking about the impact that this has on the trucking industry and we had some questions for you that I'm curious about we heard of the announcement of the targets for 2027 with the EPA to further reduce emissions on trucks you work pretty closely with the OEM so you probably have some insight into how that impacts the manufacturing of trucks and what that's going to look like for the trucking industry so can you explain exactly what the target is for this 2027 EPA regulation change sure I'd be happy to do that I can hit three uh key highlights for you Jamie and and for your audience and I'd like to start off by saying this is a different type of legislation or a different uh way of going about doing a regulation because you can't think of it as just a specific Target like a target for nox or a target for particulate that's what we're familiar with based on prior regulatory Cycles this time it's a little bit more complex it's always a little bit more complex but I'd like to unpack that for you a little bit first of all there is going to be a new Target for nox and that's what grabs the headlines right now you're allowed 0.2 grams of nox per brake horsepower hour in 2027 there will be a new objective for tailpipe emissions it concerns nox and it will reduce the amount of nox permitted from 0.2 grams per brake horsepower hour down to .035 okay that's almost a 90 reduction right but it's for it's per break horsepower hour and there are specific Duty Cycles where this goes into effect it's not a broad brush requirement over all operating conditions in fact the primary impact is going to be on engine startup today you have an exemption the system is called the catalytic converter is not operating at Peak efficiency so you're allowed to exceed the the threshold that you have when you're moving down the highway and the system is operating a peak efficiency that uh deviation if you will is going to be eliminated and you are now required to have a clean system with respect to nox when when you have vehicle startup to do that you're going to have to have a heating system in place case and we're already becoming familiar with this heating system because although the federal requirement is goes into effect in 2027 state of California's requirement goes into effect in 2024 now their requirement is not quite as stringent they're doing a 75 percent reduction going from 0.2 grams to 0.05 grams but they're doing it three years earlier than the Federal Regulation and to meet that the equipment will have to have a 48 volt heating system to preheat the catalytic converter but here's where this new regulation that was published in December is a a bigger deal right the engines really aren't going to change that much because of this nox you're not going to see anything uh elaborate in terms of the the 13 15 liter diesel engines that are on the road today what you're going to see is two big things that are happening behind the scenes one is technological and the other is Administrative technologically the OBD requirements get a lot tougher you can't and I'm not going to be able to unpack it here and I think there's other people that can do it better than I would but at the end of the day when you look at the OBD requirements OBD being onboard diagnostics think of them as becoming much more aggressive right if you're sampling the system on an hourly basis maybe you're doing it multiple times per hour if you're only doing it during steady state operation now you're doing it doing startups shut down etc etc you are going to be analyzing the efficacy and the reliability of your system much more often why is that important it's important because the possibility of false fails is going to jump dramatically if you're checking your system you're going to more frequently you're gonna find problems more frequently problems require repair taking a vehicle out of service going through that whole process it's too early to say uh what the implications of this if you're a vehicle OEM obviously you're concerned with making these systems as robust as possible so you don't get the false fails that's the way you ensure a customer satisfaction but if you're going to make the systems more robust and now we're talking about sensors and electronic control systems you're making them more expensive so at some point there becomes a trade-off you can't just keep ramping up the cost of these systems at some point you got to release the product and live with its capabilities well we don't know yet what those are Jamie it just seems like OBD is going to make the pro the potential for false fails increase the third thing and then I'll I'll hand it back to you but it's big is warranty right now the regulations require if I'm correct in my understanding that the the warranty on the emission system is maintained for one hundred thousand miles that might have originated from passenger car requirements like truck requirements and hundred thousand miles pretty much covers the maybe not the useful life of the vehicle but a good chunk of it right not the case with commercial vehicles in many many applications 100 000 miles is you know that that's in the first year I don't normally like to stop a guest mid-sentence like we did here but um as John was talking about the the implications of warranty it made me think of a conversation I had with Steve Hoke president of diesel emission service and uh they sell the redline emissions product brand of after treatment replacement parts it made me think of some of his comments back in January when we were at hdaw I want you to just listen into what Steve had to say specifically about why this change in warranty could be a good thing for the owners of vehicles so just listen to what Steve had to say what's happening in 2027 is they're they're basically making the manufacturers clean up a little bit more on the knock side so it'll basically be a dual Ser system but the big Advantage for the truck owner is the EPA is mandating that the OEM manufacturers extend the warranties on their after treatment or their emission systems to where five years down the road they're still compliant or they can be replaced under warranty which for the for the trucker that's a fantastic thing or for the fleet themselves okay let's get back to what John was saying about how this is going to impact manufacturers and of course vehicle owners if and as again my understanding is these regulations extend the warranty period to 300 000 miles 400 500 000 again what are the oems going to do to make the systems now more robust than they are today and how much are they going to charge for them and finally what do we do what choices do we make when our vehicle is under warranty versus not under warranty where do we take our vehicles when they're under warranty we take them back to the dealership if they're out of warranty we have some more flexibility where we go and often cost is a huge driver it seems like if you're going to put a longer warranty on the emissions system that is going to derive more repair business back to the dealership for a longer period of time and that is something that our industry needs to contemplate and prepare for it was really great talking to John about this he's such a wealth of information and it was so great to have John back on the podcast as I was putting this episode together and and the crew at The Heavy Duty Parts report were looking at this subject again we look back to some of the conversations we had not that long ago at hdaw and Steve Hoke had a good point of as him and I were talking at hdaw I make the point that there is an overall feeling towards diesel emission systems most owners they hate them they don't like the systems um they just see it as added cost and Steve and I were talking about that and I think it's relevant to this conversation because anytime these regulations have changed in the past it historically hasn't been really a good thing for the bottom line of the trucking industry maybe it's good for reducing pollution maybe it's good for Humanity as a whole but for Trucking outfits it seems to just be added cost so listening to Steve and I as we talk about that specifically because I think it is an important piece to the puzzle obviously these new regulations are going to change what is going to be on trucks from 2027 on and that has a direct implication on maintenance and repair of those Vehicles so listening to Steve and Ice conversation when I talk about diesel emission systems you know publicly we always get a lot of comments and feedback from people a lot of drivers you know they they really hate the systems and I know that as someone like I when I sold Heavy Duty Parts I worked for a company that really didn't even want to do diesel emission stuff they just they just kind of want to almost ignore it so what challenges are people having on the aftermarket side that you've observed kind of historically and then let's talk a little bit about where that might take us as these new regulations come into effect yeah so when you have a class of vehicle that you've run for 20 years 30 years 40 years um and never had specific segments of your engine other than adjust the valves or change your air cleaner or service points change how you operate your Fleet not only in downtime but in costs truckers get upset fleets get upset it keeps driving more cost to every mile that they drive I think the biggest thing that we see is a lot of the maintenance we always talk about this the maintenance with the oems tell people are like the most perfect conditions and we all know that real world isn't a perfect condition you know from the diesel particulate filter side a DPF is basically um it catches so it catches a particular matter but it's it's done by volumetric efficiency so you have a round can and as you fill it with Ash so all the the burnt or oxidized soot that's now Ash it takes away the volumetric efficiency creates more back pressure which then start wearing on all those other components the vgg turbos don't like it the valve trains don't like it the valve guys don't like it so everybody blames the DPF but because fleets were led to believe that they could go 250 300 000 plus miles before servicing them truthfully that was that was not good on the oem's part they should have the diesel particular filters just like an oil filter costs a lot more but it is a serviceable item that that The Fleets themselves should figure out what is their best um number 50 000 75 000 or 100 000 mile service interval and and then stick with that whether we like it or not changes are happening to the commercial Trucking industry they are motivated by that push to a zero emissions world it's impacting the way ice vehicles are going to be manufactured from 2027 and Beyond and every time a change like that is made it doesn't just impact one system it often impacts many systems and as people who sell parts and service we need to understand what those changes are after the break we're going to talk to a subject matter expert who sells oil and because of these EPA changes uh in 2027 there has been a new standard in engine oil that has been brought forward after the break we're going to learn all about that new standard and you're going to find out everything you need to know we'll be right back don't have a heavy duty part number and need to look up a part go to parts.dieselllaptops.com or download the app on Apple or Android to create your free account looking for high quality fuel injection for heavy duty applications having one supplier for fuel injection allows you to better serve customers by providing them with a complete line which increases your sales and profitability learn more at Ambac international.com aftermarket Parts availability and quality have a big influence on fleets and owner operators total cost of operation if they can't find a part it means more downtime if they install a low quality part and it fails it means even more costs like tow bills hotels meals for the driver and lost Revenue that's why we recommend sampa they manufacture a wide range of advanced parts for commercial vehicles their website has an intelligent product search engine and Broad coverage of suspension steering and fifth wheel components expect more if sampa visit sampa.com today we're back from our break and before the break we were talking about the EPA changes that are coming in 2027 how they impact trucks and manufacturers of those trucks how it's going to impact the diesel emission system and this also is impacting the trucking industry as a whole because whether you own the trucks or you fix and repair them or supply parts all of these changes impact you directly one change that is going to come because of these EPA regulations is a new standard in engine oil and while I was at TMC I had a chance to talk to a subject matter expert and I wanted to share that conversation with you now I'm Daryl purifakatti senior technical advisor for OEM and Automotive for HF Sinclair representing the Petro Canada lubricants Brands okay Daryl thank you so much for the opportunity to come and talk to you about some some stuff that's happening in the instruments that's new we're here at TMC at the annual meeting in Orlando Florida Daryl can you tell me what is pc12 so pc12 is the next generation of heavy duty engine oils it is the 12th generation since API has started to develop heavy duty engine oils and this represents the next and latest generation okay so why is it coming out now what what was motivating that like why is the timing now important the timing of any category can be based on a number of factors they can be from Hardware changes or other advances in Industry often environmental regulations come into play so the epa's and carb have come out with regulations for the next generation of ghg emissions and those come into effect in 2027 these heavy duty engine oil categories take a while to develop so we're starting now to implement on January 1st 2027. okay that makes a lot of sense and and certainly with those announcement of those EPA regulations we knew for a while that they were coming as it happened in the past when the EPA put out different regulations it changed the technology on trucks I think back to 2007 and 2010 with diesel emission systems and things like that um how is this change in pc12 going to impact heavy duty lubricants specifically well with any update to whether uh whether the environmental regulation or government regulation Hardware technology advances so we're looking to improve not only emissions but while we're doing that we're improving the durability of the products that are being released that people are using at the end of the day as well as improvements in some standard performance characteristics while we're generating compliance to the Future regulations okay that makes sense when it comes to these changes I remember when I was selling Parts back in I think it was 2017 that was the last change is that correct correct okay and I remember that reverse compatibility was a big conversation when I'd go out into the You Know Field I'd talk to fleets and talk to repair shops hey look this change is coming what do you need to know so what do we need to know about reverse compatibility yeah you're absolutely right it was a big deal with the last category implementation there's two separate categories and it's going to occur again as we move forward OEM are developing new engines and that our engine architecture is not always compatible with current technology so they're designed specifically for lower hths oils and that's the second category okay that's going to continue as we move along in the future those engines are specifically designed to take advantage of fuel efficiencies and and the oils have been designed specifically for that architecture unfortunately the Vista metrics don't work out and they're not compatible with each other oh okay so if you're in a situation where you have a mixed Fleet and you've got several different types of trucks different engines you're now going to have to manage those based on engine type is that correct and it's been going on since the last category there have been some oems that recommend the fa4 type oils that's going to continue in the future where oems will develop engines and the architecture within that engines will be specific to ck4 fa4 as it is today or the new proposed categories that have come out in 2027 there will be two categories based on the engine architecture designed by the oems themselves so immediately I'm thinking about a situation where maybe you're a large Fleet and you have vehicles going in a lot of different environments maybe you even work in different vocations or if you're a repair shop and you don't really know whose truck you're going to see next how is these changes to these standards going to impact the performance of the engines like what do repair technicians and shops need to know about that so if you're running a shop or you want to you're operating a fleet you have to understand there's two different oils that are going to be in the proposed category and the first step is always to find out the OEM or the make of the engine and determine what oil is recommended for that engine when it comes to Performance of the oil itself it's going to be a step forward there's going to be a greater level of durability there's going to be a better level of wear protection fuel efficiency is always at the four four fronts and what we're looking at and all of these things help meet the government regulations you have to understand that speaking of efficiencies and gains I think you know the the maybe the heart and soul of these changes to regulations is to try to make things more sustainable to to make the performance better over time so what kinds of performance gains what kinds of maybe fuel efficiency or move towards more sustainability are we going to see with this new proposed standard the new standard is going to address greenhouse gas emissions when it comes to sustainability and efficiencies in a fleet we can look to other things that are outside of the standard so you have the performance benefit of the standard but when you're managing your oil program within a fleet or within a shop we can look at things like extending oil drains so fewer oil changes over a million kilometers you may have three or four oil changes fewer if you are have a program in place to extend your oil drain intervals that helps reduce the amount of overall oil that you use that reduces the amount of waste that you use things like oil filters at trap oil fewer of those need to be replaced all of those type of efforts help in the overall sustainability and then when it comes to fuel efficiency we're used to seeing things like skirting and aerodynamics and the hardware on a truck when we're looking at engine oils the performance standard will help with the efficiencies we at Petro Canada lubricants like to look at the powertrain as a whole every part of that powertrain can help with fuel efficiencies you get the right gear oil the right transmission oil the right engine oil all will help in making the most the most optimized usage of the system as a whole and that will become a much more efficient unit that will help with the fuel efficiency in an overall sense but we've put the behind us the days where you could just run one oil there's a little bit more complexity to it if people are wanting to learn more if they want to get some assistance in inspecting things correctly or understanding that what's the best way of interacting with your organization we have a very large field support group that does this type of work day in and day out you can contact your local local rep that will put you in touch with the technical advisor such as myself or one of my many colleagues within our organization they'll help you walk you through not only the correct oil for your engine but the correct oil for your transmission the correct oil for your gears and help set you up on something like a used oil analysis program if you think of engine as the heart of a unit then the oil is like the blood right right and a used oil analysis program monitors that it's kind of preventative medicine and the more of that type of work we can do the more we can look at each unit and optimize that unit from not only the performance of the unit but for extending oil drains and just maintenance and health of the unit but certainly all of our field tech operatives are very much expertise experts in this type of work Daryl thank you so much for taking some time it's been a busy show and I really appreciate you spending some time with me and educating us about pc12 and the implications it's going to have on the trucking industry yeah thanks Jamie appreciate your time as well thank you thank you so much for listening to today's episode I hope that we provided you with uh educational content that you can use to help you better prepare for the changes that are coming whether you sell parts whether you're in service or you own Vehicles all of these regulation changes have an impact on the way that we're going to do business and as we move towards this zero emission world where ice vehicles are slowly but surely eliminated or at least modified heavily this has a big impact on us and we need to keep talking about it we need to keep getting this these subject matter experts to come and provide us with information so I hope you took value from today's episode if you are finding value from listening to The Heavy Duty Parts report make sure you give us a follow you can do this in three ways one you can head over to heavy duty partsreport.com hit the follow button that's going to sign you up to our weekly email so you never miss out on any content if you like to listen to the episodes then you can do so wherever you get your podcasts and follow for free and if you like to watch the video version go over to our YouTube channel and hit that subscribe button also our sponsors without them we wouldn't be able to produce the show so take some time to click those links and check out our sponsors thank you again for listening to The Heavy Duty Parts report and as always be heavy duty [Music] foreign thank you for watching this video click here to subscribe to The Heavy Duty Parts report YouTube channel and click here to watch another great episode

Channel: The Heavy Duty Parts Report

Views: 3,632

Keywords: heavy-duty parts, heavy-duty parts report, Western Star, Freightliner, Kenworth, Peterbilt, International Trucks, Volvo Trucks, Mack, heavy duty parts report, heavy duty parts, heavy equipment, trucking industry, trucking, trucks, diesel technicians

Id: R_MQZCd1ljI

Length: 25min 34sec (1534 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 10 2023