DALLAS - During panel discussions held at the Great American Truck Show in Dallas, Detroit Diesel Corp. announced its BlueTec emissions technology completed 25 million miles of testing ahead of schedule.  By its rollout on January 1, 2010, the Detroit Diesel BlueTec technology will surpass 28 million miles of testing, making it one of the most proven and tested emissions reduction technologies ever.

Detroit Diesel's BlueTec emissions technology - a North American version of Daimler's widely acclaimed technology - represents the company's latest innovation in clean diesel engine technology to be fully-developed and commercialized.

"We are pleased to have taken full advantage of our early choice of SCR as the best technology for our customers for 2010. The 2010 BlueTec technology will be one of most extensively tested emissions technology systems in our company's history, and having this decade of experience has allowed Detroit Diesel and Daimler Trucks North America to not only have an extended period of time for system design and performance refinement but also to gain significant testing and validation experience," said David Siler, director of marketing, Detroit Diesel.

"The early commitment to the technology allowed us to finalize our production-intent designs early and to conclusively demonstrate the performance, durability, and effectiveness of our BlueTec technology on
production designs over the extended life-cycle demands of our customers," he added.

BlueTec will incorporate the enhanced performance of Detroit Diesel's recently introduced DD15(tm), DD13(tm) and DD16(tm) big bore engines, as well as the already proven ACRS(tm) fuel system and an integrated engine-compression brake.  Detroit Diesel's BlueTec technology includes a unique 1-Box(tm) packaging design optimized for low back-pressure and an all-new, robust DPF material.  The BlueTec aftertreatment system will utilize diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) and has been fully optimized for low
emissions and high fuel economy.

"We are meeting our program goals for performance and emissions, fuel economy, durability, and reliability.  Our current projections are showing up to 5% diesel fuel economy improvement, and up to 3% net improvement with our BlueTec equipped engines compared to today's engines," said Rakesh Aneja, EPA 2010 program manager, Detroit Diesel. "In cooperation with our vehicle colleagues at Daimler Trucks North America, we have had the opportunity to test our 2010 BlueTec system under diverse ambient and environmental conditions, operating conditions and routes.  The results of our validation testing meet our expectations and offer a shift from fuel penalties to fuel economies for our customers in 2010, with simultaneous reduction of emissions and CO2, compared to today's EGR-only vehicles." 

SCR Is the Technology of Choice for North America BlueTec symbolizes Daimler's commitment to meet today's environmental challenges, while also offering exemplary performance and fuel economy. Since adapting the technology in early 2005, Daimler Trucks has delivered more than 200,000 trucks and buses around the world utilizing BlueTec.

"Recent studies show the rest of the North American truck and engine marketplace of truck fleets understand and prefer the benefits we saw several years ago. Once they have the facts, they favor SCR technology two to one as their choice to competitively meet the EPA 2010 emissions targets," said Siler. "It was only a matter of time before customers would demand improved fuel economy as well as clean emissions.  SCR is the only proven technology that offers both."