Andreas Renschler, member of the Daimler Board of Management and Head of the Daimler Trucks Division, and his colleagues, Dr. Michael Dostal, who is responsible for Powertrain Operations & Manufacturing Engineering, and Chris Patterson, who is responsible for the NAFTA Region and the commercial vehicle brands Freightliner, Sterling, Western Star, and Thomas Built Buses, today presented the new Heavy-Duty Engine Platform (HDEP) for the North American market in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.
“The new family of heavy-duty engines, which were jointly developed in Germany, Japan and the U.S., marks an important step toward the realization of our worldwide modular strategy,” said Renschler at the launch. “As part of the Global Excellence Program, we will make much greater use of common parts and even modules across our brands. This will enable us to achieve significant economies of scale in the long term and will consolidate our position as a global leader.”
The objective is to replace the current eight engine families with just three for all brands worldwide. In a first step, the HDEP will be used to replace today’s four heavy-duty engines with a global engine platform for this segment over the mid to long term. Since 2002, $1.5 billion has been invested worldwide in the development of the Heavy-Duty Engine Platform.
With 90 percent shared parts, it will be possible to achieve considerable cost savings in the long term. The savings are mainly due to common development and production series management, globally coordinated engine production and economies of scale. Target volumes have been set at 200,000 units per year in the mid- to long-term. These engines, which will be built in Germany, Japan, and the U.S., will be offered in three displacement categories: 12.8 liters, 14.8 liters and 15.6 liters.
Once the Detroit Diesel DD15 has been launched on the market, the engine family also will be used by Mitsubishi Fuso in the medium-term and later by Mercedes-Benz.
Due to the long development cycles for commercial vehicles, the market launches have been planned to coincide with the model changeovers of the individual products and brands. For this reason, the HDEP will now be available in the new Freightliner Cascadia for the first time worldwide. Implementation in Daimler Trucks’ four other truck brands will follow in succession.
By combining exhaust gas recirculation and a diesel particulate filter to reduce emissions, the DD15 is exactly matched to the requirements of the North American EPA ‘07 emissions regulations and the wishes of customers in this region. The six-cylinder inline engine has a displacement of more than 14.8 liters and is capable of meeting EPA 2010 requirements without limitations as well as other potential measures aimed at reducing exhaust emissions.
In addition to its many technological innovations, the DD15 promises lower fuel consumption, economical maintenance costs, high reliability and a long service life. The developers have intensively tested the HDEP in the U.S., Germany, and Japan over more than 3.5 million miles in practice and on test rigs. In this way, Daimler Trucks is ensuring that customers will be able to rely on the accustomed quality of the heavy-duty engines from Detroit Diesel right from the start.
The market launch of the DD15 in the Freightliner Cascadia will take place in the second quarter of 2008. The engine will be produced for the North American market in the Detroit Diesel plant in Redford, Michigan.
