Press Releases

Iveco Senior Vice President, Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicle Platforms, Sam Burman, presented a paper entitled, “Climate Friendly Commercial Vehicles for Tomorrow” at the VDA International Press Workshop today in Frankfurt, an event traditionally held in advance of the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show, to be held in Hanover from 23rd to 30th September 2010.
The key message given by Burman to the workshop related to the need for sound scientifically based technical regulations, backed up by in-depth impact assessments, outlining the future path for road transport vehicles in addressing CO2 emissions.
A European Industrial Policy was called for in which R&D activities could be prioritised and centrally funded in place of individual Member State initiatives that may be subject to national interests, resulting in market distortions. In addition, the issue of the very slow rate of vehicle fleet renewal was addressed, resulting in a disproportionate number of old vehicles still in operation not bringing to society the huge benefits in terms of low exhaust emissions and fuel economy that new vehicles can provide. As part of the Industrial Policy, purchasing incentives as a way in which new innovative technologies could rapidly enter the market were proposed, again implemented at a European level.
The point was made that any new traction technology is likely to have an unladen vehicle mass higher than the equivalent Diesel engine-mechanical transmission power train which could detract from their appeal to fleet operators, despite their obvious environmentally friendly attributes. Reference was made to an initiative made by French Authorities to remove the mass of the traction batteries of electric and hybrid vehicles and the mass of the fuel tanks for natural gas vehicles from the gross vehicle mass calculation so removing the purchasing obstacle. Such legislative developments are also being studied by Spanish and Italian Authorities but action was required at a European level.
Iveco
Iveco designs, manufactures, and markets a broad range of light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles, off-road trucks, city and intercity buses and coaches as well as special vehicles for applications such as fire fighting, off-road missions, defence and civil protection.
Iveco employs almost 25,000 people and runs 24 production units in 11 Countries in the world using excellent technologies developed in 6 research centres. Besides Europe, the company operates in China, Russia, Australia and Latin America. With around 5,000 sales and service outlets in over 160 Countries guarantee technical support wherever in the world an Iveco vehicle is at work.

Torino, 9th July 2010