Analysis by Diesel Technology Forum of HIS Automotive’s vehicles in operation data shows that more than 40 percent of all medium- and heavy-duty diesel powered trucks on the road today are equipped with clean diesel engines. This is up from 37 percent in 2015. Basically we are talking about 2007 and newer vehicles here.
Indiana (my home state) has the highest overall percentage — 61 percent — of new technology penetration. Utah comes in at 54.5 percent, Oklahoma at 53.9 percent, Texas at 50.9 percent and Wyoming at 49.5% to round out the top five. Other states in the top ten include Montana, Maryland, Louisiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
Oregon, Oklahoma and Delaware are seeing the fastest growth of clean diesel trucks while Texas and California have the greatest number of clean diesel trucks on the road.
This is good news because as Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, points out, “Beyond the clean air benefits, Model Year 2010 and newer trucks also achieve three to five percent improvements in fuel economy and lower emissions of greenhouse gases.”
Schaeffer adds that because diesel fuel is the dominant fuel used in commercial vehicles this move to clean diesels is significant.
As fleets continue to replace older equipment with newer model years these percentages will obviously go up. And that is a good first step: upgrading your power source to clean diesel. Once you’ve done that the next step is to start looking at some of the more than 60 technology solutions and operational practices we’ve studied that help you improve your fuel efficiency even more and make the air cleaner too.
