Technology to be talking point at Jhb Truck & Bus Show

What level of technology is most appropriate for the South African truck market? This question has been debated many times in the past, and it is particularly appropriate at the present when local diesel fuel standards are a determining factor in deciding which engine specifications can be made available to the operator community.

Currently, Euro 2 is the legislated minimum emission level for new motor vehicles sold locally, and diesel fuel with 500 parts per million (ppm) sulphur content is the universal standard made available at fuel outlets around the country. Higher quality fuel, with 50 ppm sulphur content, is provided by the petroleum industry to selected outlets, while Sasol delivers 5 ppm "Turbo Diesel ULS" to its own branded outlets around the highveld area.

Varying fuel quality

This situation of varying fuel quality does allow some operators to employ vehicles with more advanced emission standards than Euro 2, but careful management of the fuel grade entering the fuel systems of these vehicles is imperative to ensure reliability.

South African-applied Euro 2 standards, inter alia, limit nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission levels to 7.0 grams per kilowatt-hour, which is considerably more lenient than legislation presently prevailing in First World countries.

Euro 5, the current European standard, pegs NOx at 2.0 g/kWh, while in the US, EPA 2010 was enacted nearly two years ago at a maximum of 0.2 g/bhp-hr. Japan's JE05 standard, which came into force in 2009, set the upper limit at 0.7 g/kWh, while Europe is scheduled to apply Euro 6 on 1 January, 2013, when the upper parameter will fall to 0.4 g/kWh.

SA supply date unknown

It is not yet known when South African fuel refineries will be able to supply diesel fuel nationally with 10 ppm sulphur content, which is the minimum requirement for Euro 6-compliant engines. Local refinery upgrades to the tune of R40 billion will reportedly be necessary to achieve this capability. In the interim, the national enforcement of any significantly more advanced emission standard will be impracticable.

This situation poses difficulties to vehicle suppliers, whose global products have been obliged to move forward in concert with overseas emission and fuel standards. In some cases, "reverse engineering" of new product lines will become necessary if they are destined for the local market.

While it may be appropriate to question the necessity for South Africa to move ahead with more stringent standards that require substantial capital investments, it is important to remember that the country has obligations in terms of international environmental protocols to reduce emission levels.

The cost of disconnecting from international norms

Notwithstanding these, there is also the consideration that, while retaining fuel standards at static levels will save on capital investment, disconnecting local vehicle technology levels from international norms also has a cost implication. South Africa's previous attempt to do this under the Atlantis/ASTAS high local content regime in the 1980s produced, arguably, some of the most expensive trucks in the world, while denying their operators access to the reduced operating costs that come with regular technical advances.

During that period of strategic priorities by the politically isolated South African government, most local truck and bus suppliers had been faced with costly re-engineering of their vehicles to accept local driveline components. Not surprisingly, several decided to opt out, figuring that this sort of investment to retain a marginal share of a highly competitive market running at just 0.5 percent of the global volume could not be justified.

Lack of global competitiveness

While the high degree of resulting driveline standardisation was welcomed by some operators, the price that they were paying for this perceived benefit contributed to the country's general lack of global competitiveness. Fortunately, this situation prevailed for only slightly more than a decade and, by 1994, the first democratic elections had taken place and truck and bus manufacturers started returning, in numbers, to a considerably less dictatorial South Africa.

The problem created for commercial vehicle suppliers by the current fuel-supply situation is that they must supply South Africa with old-fashioned engine technology compatible with local fuel quality. The further that this country falls behind the rest of the world, the more potentially expensive this realignment of technical specifications becomes.

Cost of local market participation too high?

There is a distinct danger that some manufacturers may decide, once again, that the cost of local market participation is too high, while others may seek alternative engine supply from manufacturers who can justify the expense of maintaining the availability of obsolete technology. This will require extensive re-engineering of products to accept "foreign" engines, which also carries a cost.

There are remarkable similarities, for totally different reasons, between the situation prevailing in the early 1980s, and the scenario threatening to develop in the years immediately ahead. Inevitably, transport operators will end up footing the bill for any special adaptations that have to be made to vehicles for local consumption, and with SA's huge dependence on road transport, this will find its way into the broader economy.

There is, therefore, a very strong case for SA to get its fuel supply house in order, sooner rather than later, and this will bring related benefits to the environmental cause, while, at the same time, enabling some of the sting to be taken out of the prevailing CO2 tax on light vehicles.