Press Releases

Chief executives of the world’s leading manufacturers of heavy-duty vehicles and engines from Europe, Japan and the United States met yesterday to discuss challenges facing the industry.
The 4th Global Commercial Vehicle Industry Meeting, chaired by the CEO of Iveco, Paolo Monferino, follows similar meetings previously held in Amsterdam, Tokyo and Chicago.
“The need for Global Technical Regulations is key to our industry and we actively take part in their development – said Mr. Monferino –. We are convinced that the industry and the regulatory authorities have to work together in striving for efficient and responsible solutions at the global level for the improvement of competitiveness and transport sustainability”.
The meeting was opened by Bernard Gauvin, Chairman of the World Forum for the Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE WP.29), who spoke about global fuel regulations.
Members and staff of the the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) and Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA), also participated in the meeting.

Fuel quality, global harmonization of regulations, and intellectual property
The executives emphasized the importance of the global availability of high quality fuels as a significant condition for the environmental performance of their products.
Yesterday’s discussions also focused on actions to achieve the harmonisation needed to continue the progress already made in reducing emissions worldwide from heavy-duty vehicles in a cost-effective manner into the next decade.
With regard to Intellectual Property, the participants agreed that strengthened appeals should be made to governments to address counterfeit automotive products as a priority issue, also by achieving a greater consumer awareness of the fact that the majority of low-quality counterfeit products harbour the potential of exerting serious impact on health and safety.

Equipping for future challenges
The meeting participants discussed and agreed that the principal challenges facing truck manufacturers and truck operators in the industrialized regions of the world in the future will be the need to continually improve environmental and safety performance, ensuring the availability of energy sources, and the need to continually improve the efficiency and productivity of truck operations.
To address these issues, the participants agreed to establish working groups to study the feasibility and prospects for harmonized methods for assessing CO2 emissions, to identify effective ways to promote incentives for safety technologies, and to review prospects for alternative fuels to practicably reduce the need for oil.

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, civil defence and protection.
Iveco employs 32,000 people and runs 43 production units in 18 Countries in the world using excellent technologies developed in 15 research centres. Besides Europe, the company operates in China, Russia, Turkey, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, and South Africa. More than 4,500 service outlets in over 100 Countries guarantee technical support wherever in the world an Iveco vehicle is at work.
www.iveco.com
Hanover, 20 September 2006