Having recently attended the launch of Scania's new Euro-5 EGR engine line-up (which Biglorryblog has blogged on extensively---oh yes I have, you just weren't paying attention were you?) I find myself at the MAN UK launch of the TGX/TGS at Millbrook today. And it seems only right to ask when we'll see MAN's own Euro-5 EGR engines. After all, apart from Scania, they're the only other truck maker who has majored on exhaust gas recirculation as the route to cleaner emissions. (I don't really count Volvo's EGR engines as they're still primarily wed to SCR).
And the answer to my question is that MAN Euro-5 rated EGR engines will make their 'official debut' at next year's IAA Hanover Truck show in the autumn of 2008, with the first versions appearing in the UK in 2009. So there you are..and don't say I never tell you anything.
In the meantime, the more uncharitable amongst BLB's readership might well be asking: 'Hang on ein minuten...Scania have got EGR Euro-5 engines now. What's taken MAN so long?" Apparently that same question was asked of a senior member of the MAN board just the other day. His reply was rather succinct I thought: "Well they haven't just launched a new range of trucks!" Fair enoughski...
Meanwhile, I learn that for the moment at least, if you want one of MAN's new 680hp vee-bomber TGX tractors (pictured above in all its stump-pulling glory) you'll have to make do with a 40-tonne 4x2 left-hooker, as the men from Swindon can't quite justify the cost of building them as a right hoooker....at least for now.
But BLB wonders how long that position will last for? Following the launch of the mighty V8 TGX in Germany the home market has gone bonkers for them, exceeding all expectations (and sales predictions). So will it do the same in the UK, forcing Munich to build a 44-tonne right-hand-drive 6x2 for us Brits? We'll see won't we?
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