'Landmark' Truck Regulations to Take Fuel-Saving Technologies to Next Level: ATG's Scheps

New commercial vehicle fuel economy standards put in place earlier this year by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) represent "landmark" regulation that will bring fuel-saving technologies—including downweighting with aluminum—to the "next level," said Aluminum Transportation Group Chairman Randall Scheps.

The required improvements to trucks and buses built from 2014 to 2018 will reduce the nation's oil consumption by an estimated 530 million barrels and cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 270 million metric tons annually.

"About 40 percent of trucks today have aluminum cabs, and we certainly see that percentage growing over time," Scheps said in an interview with Automotive World at its Commercial Vehicle Innovation Summit.

"Aluminum in those kinds of truck cab applications can save about 40 percent of the weight of steel. And it's easy to work with—almost as easy to work with as steel. So it's a fairly easy change for truck makers to make. It's compatible with their existing stamping assets and assembly assets. It's a 40 percent weight savings sitting out there waiting to be grabbed," Scheps noted.

In terms of new applications where aluminum could be used to help save fuel, Scheps pointed to frame rails—the longitudinal members that support the truck body. Using high-strength aerospace alloys, he said, "we can save somewhere between 400 and 500 pounds per truck by changing those over from steel to aluminum."

Structural and safety-critical applications such as frame rails are "where aluminum does its best work," Scheps noted. "Aluminum obviously has a very long heritage in aerospace—some of the most performance- and safety-critical parts in the world. So it does very, very well in those applications," he said.

Currently, an average Class 8 truck uses more than 1,000 pounds of aluminum, making up about four percent of total tractor weight. Calling attention to data provided by the aluminum industry, the EPA rule, issued August 9, sets a target of 400 additional pounds in weight reduction for the new standards.  In their data-driven analysis, EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) evaluated 29 specific weight reduction opportunities for material substitution, all of which quantify aluminum's superior ability to save weight compared with competing materials.

"The new EPA and NHTSA rule makes clear that heavy trucks are about to get less heavy and singles out aluminum as having [greater] potential to cut weight and boost fuel economy while cutting emissions than any other material," Scheps said at the time.