Daimler Trucks North America Thursday announced pricing for meeting EPA2010 standards with its Detroit Diesel BlueTec or Cummins mid-range engine emissions technologies.

Emissions technology surcharges for vehicles equipped with Detroit Diesel DD15 and DD16 big-bore engines, as well as the medium-bore DD13, will be $9,000 per vehicle. A surcharge of $7,300 will be added to vehicles equipped with the Cummins ISC8.3 engine, and a $6,700 surcharge will be added to the price of vehicles equipped with Cummins ISB6.7 engines.

The surcharges reflect costs associated with adding selective catalytic reduction (SCR) which supporters say can significantly improve fuel economy compared to EPA 2007 engines while reducing long-term operating costs and meeting the stringent, near-zero emission standards
set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that take effect Jan. 1, 2010.

Daimler is the third company to announce their 2010 pricing. Volvo announced a $9,600 surcharge earlier this year for trucks with Volvo or Cummins engines meeting the 2010 emissions standards. Last week, Navistar officials announced that customers will pay an extra $6,000 for MaxxForce 7 and DT engines, and $8,000 more for the big-bore MaxxForce 11, 13 and 15 engines.

SCR is an emissions technology that treats NOx emissions downstream in the exhaust so that the engine can be tuned to run more efficiently and economically. SCR technology consists of an after-treatment catalyst system that allows engine exhaust to be treated with a non-hazardous fluid known as diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) that reduces harmful NOx into simple nitrogen and water.

Since virtually no base engine changes are needed for SCR to work, service technicians will also find no engine maintenance changes for EPA2010.

According to Mark Lampert, senior vice president of sales, the fuel efficiencies achieved with the Detroit Diesel DD15 engine with BlueTec emissions technology effectively return North American trucking to pre-EGR fuel economy levels while reducing dependence on foreign oil and reducing emissions to near-zero levels at the tailpipe. And, with more than 25 million test miles completed in North America, including successful real-world freight hauling experience at several major fleets, and more than 200,000 SCR trucks already operating in Europe, "that return on investment in BlueTec SCR technology is more than just fuel economy...it's proven reliability."