New EU-exhaust emission directive
The introduction of the EU-Exhaust Emission Regulation Stage III B poses a enormous challenge for the construction machinery manufacturers. A great deal of investment and development capacity is necessary. For the buyers that means higher prices, in some cases greater efficiency on the building site. VDMA sees tighter regulation as “counter-productive”.
At the Wirtgen-Group, the world’s largest manufacturer of road construction machinery, a major restructuring process is currently underway. “We have”, says Dr. Günter Hähn, “a production programme that has practically doubled”. The unit figures have halved and expenditure almost doubled. “We have to adapt our machines. That costs a lot of money.” What the Executive Director in charge of Wirtgen GmbH’s Technical Division is referring to are the effects of the exhaust emission regulations, which have been in force in Europe and the USA since beginning of this year. Hähn estimates that...
