Saving grace

Capacity of Texas has recently agreed with Navistar to supply the MaxxForce 7 engine, adding a common rail injection set up with an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system that reduces NOx emissions from the V-8 diesel engine as an alternative to the more common selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems.

But more radically, a hybrid tractor – or more accurately a PHETT (pluggable hybrid electric terminal tractor), has been developed by Capacity in double-quick time. Capacity received a $722,000 grant as recently as May 2008 from the Texas Environmental Research Consortium and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

It is notable that the unit has been taken from concept to production in less than a year – a sharp contrast to the half-dozen years that it normally takes the trucking and automotive industry. “The market place demanded a quick response,” explains Heath Parsons of Capacity.

But there is another reason for the rush: Capacity is after holding a niche position on the green agenda. The state of Texas is well behind the push, and not coy about aligning green issues and patriotism in one swoop: “Hybrid engines are the wave of the future and the more we can use them, the better off all of us will be,” said senator Kay Bailey Hutchison at the unveiling of the new unit in April, adding that it was also a matter of the country’s future security that the US reduce its dependency on foreign-sourced fuels.

So, it is has pulling power on more than one agenda – and the tractor has already secured orders, adds Mr Parsons.