CALIFORNIA – Volvo Trucks has announced plans to commercialise heavy duty trucks running on dimethyl ether fuel (DME), the first North American manufacturer to do so.
On June 6, the company unveiled its new energy efficient ‘alternative’ fuel optioned truck for the North American market, part of its Blue Power line-up of fuel efficient low emission vehicles.
According to Volvo, DME offers the qualities and energy efficiency of diesel but burns without producing any soot. DME’s combustion process produces virtually no particulate matter and negates the need to fit a diesel particulate filter. The fuel is sustainable and can be made from several sources, including natural gas.
Göran Nyberg, president of Volvo Trucks North American sales and marketing says, “With the addition of DME-powered vehicles to our CNG and LNG offering, Volvo’s Blue Power line-up will offer the industry’s most comprehensive approach to the developing North American alternative fuel market.”
“Drivers who have operated DME-powered engines have been impressed,” Nyberg says. “They say that it performs like diesel. And that is an important consideration for our customers’ demanding applications.”
Volvo will begin producing DME powered trucks in 2015 and will partner with Oberon Fuels and supermarket giant Safeway to trial the trucks in real-world conditions.
New Zealand buyers should not expect Volvo’s new DME powered trucks any time soon however, as the American operation is part of a global trial that will extend into European markets.
The North American trials will evaluate the DME powered vehicles over the course over a real world truck life-cycle, and assuming that is successful, New Zealand distributors, Palmerston North based Motor Truck Distributors Ltd, will bring them in.
