Only the Innovative Truckmakers Will Survive

PHILADELPHIA I came here to chat with Leif Johansson, chief executive of Volvo Group, which is not to be confused with Volvo Cars.

Volvo Group, with headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, is the world's second-largest manufacturer of 18-wheelers, heavy-duty construction trucks, buses and other commercial transportation vehicles. Germany's DaimlerChrysler, which is likely to return to its maiden Daimler-Benz name next year, is the world's largest manufacturer of over-the-road trucks and related equipment.

Volvo Group owns Nissan Diesel, Mack Trucks and Renault Trucks. Also included are Volvo Aero, which supplies engine components for commercial aircraft and aerospace; Volvo Buses; Volvo Construction Equipment; Volvo Penta, which manufactures engines for boats and industrial applications; and Volvo Financial Services, which helps Volvo Group's customers and dealers buy all of those big trucks and engines.

Volvo Cars, familiar to most Americans, makes passenger cars and sport-utility vehicles. It is owned by Ford.

I wanted to speak with Johansson because I'm looking for answers about the future of ground transportation -- personal, commercial and industrial. Volvo Group has been pouring lots of intelligence and money into developing those answers. Consider the matter of diesel fuel, used by 94 percent of the big rigs on American roads.

Generally, diesel engines are more fuel-efficient than gasoline models -- with "fuel-efficient" in this case being defined as the amount of work done per unit of fuel consumed. It is not the same thing as "fuel economy," a term that speaks more to the cost of fuel used, regardless of work-to-fuel efficiency.

For example, a small vehicle might get 35 miles per gallon, which many people might deem economical. But it is not necessarily efficient. A better-designed engine in a vehicle of similar weight and size could get 47 mpg, making it more fuel-efficient, but not necessarily more economical if the better engine has a substantially higher purchase price.

Volvo Group has been developing fuel-efficient and emissions-reducing diesel engines, such as its AdBlue system, which uses urea in the exhaust stream to turn environmentally harmful nitrogen oxides into harmless nitrogen and water vapor that is released from truck exhaust stacks. DaimlerChrysler employs a similar system, BlueTec, in its passenger diesel engines.

AdBlue and BlueTec require the use of ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, which has sulfur content at 15 parts per million, versus traditional diesel sulfur content of 500 parts per million. The new diesel emissions systems, which meet the Environmental Protection Agency's 2007 diesel emissions standards while improving fuel efficiency by 30 to 35 percent, are easily damaged by high-sulfur diesel fuel.

In the trucking industry, the fuel-efficiency improvement is good news for carrier companies and their consumers, Johansson said.

"Fuel is an enormous cost to truckers, many of whom run their trucks all week, night and day," Johansson said. "That cost ultimately gets passed on to consumers in terms of higher prices for goods in stores."

Problem solved?