The Environmental Protection Agency granted Caterpillar conditional approval to sell its on-highway truck engines after the federal emissions Oct. 1 deadline, the company announced.
The certification allows its engines to be sold in 49 states and Canada without restrictions for customers. With this EPA action, Caterpillar said it believes the California Air Resources Board will complete its certification.
This federal certification is contingent upon final EPA testing of production engines, which is required for certification. Caterpillar said the EPA told them that the agency will be unable to do the certification work before the deadline, but had indicated it did not expect anything to delay certification of all the Caterpillar engine families.
CAT engines produced after the deadline will contain some elements of its Advanced Combustion Emissions Reduction Technology. Engines with full ACERT technology, which will fully comply with EPA emissions standards, will be out in early 2003.
The company has said it expects to absorb any EPA penalties associated with sales of post-Oct. 1 engines, which will not meet the standards.
