Don’t panic about Euro 2. This Hino 915 is already fitted with a new generation, common rail, Euro 3 compliant turbo-diesel engine.

Operators should not be concerned about the January 1, 2010 change in South Africa’s emission regulations from Euro 1 to Euro 2 specifications for diesel engine trucks and buses.

So says Casper Kruger, general manager of Hino in South Africa, who has picked up a lot of confusion over the issue with many operators worried that they are now going to have to deal with technologies that may affect engine reliability and will be more costly to service.

“This will not be the case with our Hino range,” says Kruger. “We’ve already had Euro 3 engines operating here satisfactorily since March 2008 in some of our Hino 300 Series (formerly Toyota Dyna) medium trucks.”

Two of the most popular models in this top-selling line-up were upgraded with a new generation, common rail, Euro 3 compliant turbo-diesel engine in the middle of last year. The new power unit fitted to the Hino 815 and 915 models – previously Dyna 7-145 and 8-145 - is the 4-litre Hino N04C-TT common rail diesel. This is a four-cylinder engine that is turbocharged and intercooled, with four valves per cylinder and complies with Euro III specifications.

According to Kruger, South Africa is lagging far behind most countries in the world in terms of emission requirements for trucks and buses over 3 500kg GVM with the next move in South Africa after the January introduction of Euro 2 coming only in 2012, when the shift is to Euro 4, which means skipping Euro 3.

By contrast, European  countries adopted Euro 5 last year and the next move for them will be to Euro 6 in January 2013. These latter limits will be comparable in stringency to the United States’ 2010 regulations.

The Euro 1 to 6 regulations all specify decreasing amounts of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), nitrous oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) and one of the problems South Africa has had in moving forward has been the concentration of sulphur in diesel fuel which contributes to the formation of particulate matter (PM) in engine exhaust gases, as well as the formation of secondary particulates.

Fast ‘n Fresh is already ahead of Euro 2 having recently taken delivery of 20 Mercedes-Benz Actros Euro 3 compliant models.

As PM emissions are linked to health problems - in particular respiratory conditions - there has been a major, worldwide focus on reducing sulphur levels in diesel fuel to below 500 parts per million (ppm). The sulphur content in the fuel must decrease as the Euro emission levels increase from 1 to 6.

South Africa moved from 5 500ppm to 3 000ppm sulphur content in its diesel fuel in 2002 and subsequently went from 3 000ppm to 500ppm in 2006. At the same time, 50ppm low sulphur diesel became available for the first time, mainly made by Sasol’s coal-to-oil process.

The next move must be to make 50ppm fuel available on a wider geographic basis to permit the use of the latest low emission engine technology and then the requirement will focus on a further shift downward to 10ppm, which is already available in certain countries.

Kruger says that at present, most of the truck manufacturers, including Hino, are able to provide the latest low emission engine technology but the introduction of such technologies into South Africa is being stymied by the fuel companies.

“They say they will have to invest R40-billion to convert their refineries to produce cleaner fuels and the motor industry is asking for this programme to be accelerated. We have the technology to make meaningful reductions to emissions in the atmosphere with our new engine technology so now it is up to the fuel producers to speed up the process,” he says.

And he is correct about manufacturers having the technology readily available. Scania has had a Euro 4 engine operating in a test trial locally with Total for some time – with positive results emanating.

To mention just one other, the new Actros, Axor and Atego ranges from Mercedes-Benz SA are now equipped standard with Euro 3 engines for local operations with Imperial Logistics recently taking delivery of 20 Actros Euro 3 units to be integrated into its existing Fast ‘n Fresh fleet for the distribution of Woolworths’ product range. An announcement was also recently made of a pilot project between the two companies involving five new Mercedes- Benz Euro 5 trucks. More of this in our next edition.

So, Hino’s Casper Kruger is right. While the introduction to Euro 2 might be new to South Africa, it is old hat and old news to most overseas manufacturers who are miles ahead on the emissions front. We are just getting onto the first rung of the ladder with this new legislation so operators shouldn’t sweat.