SECTOR: Light/medium truck   GVW: 7.5 tonnes   Engines: 4.4 and 6.7 litres   POWER RANGE: 160–320hp

Persistent player

Like Mark Twain, reports of the death of the ubiquitous 7.5-tonner have been much exaggerated. Taking on the progressive legislative burden of tachographs and operator licensing, as well as the driver licensing restrictions of 1997, were all significant body blows, but the dear old thing refuses to lie down. It’s true that there has been a detectable move down, and up the weight range, to either escape the paperwork, or to lift gross vehicle weight (GVW) to 12 tonnes. But Claudio Zanframundo, managing director of Iveco UK and Ireland, says; ‘They still make up some 50% of the medium weight market and 6,400 were registered (in the UK) in 2012 alone, an increase of almost 25%. And we are forecasting another increase to almost 6,800 by the end of 2013.’

The spice of life

Variety has traditionally been a strength of the EuroCargo’s appeal and that looks set to remain with the Euro 6 models. Engines, cabs, wheelbases, gearboxes and suspensions can be tailored to suit from 7.0-tonnes GVW upwards. Iveco claim over 11,000 ex-factory versions and they’ve concentrated on the need for bodybuilder utility with a flat upper chassis surface and body-mounting brackets that are designed to take body lengths from 4.1 to 10 metres. Transmissions at this weight have had a recent boost in driveability with the arrival of an AMT (automated manual transmission) for most brands, and the gearbox choices could be the fleet manager’s crucial decision. The new Euro 6 EuroCargo has a choice of 13: six manuals of five, six or nine speeds, four AMTs of six and 12-speeds, and three Allison five-speed torque-converter automatics. If you are a traditional buyer who prefers a stick for your drivers to stir, take one AMT onto the fleet and see how it runs. The early bugs were removed when they were only available in 44-tonne gross combination weight (GCW) tractor units, so light rigid truck customers can take the benefit of that experience.

Euro6 power

Iveco surprised the truck industry, and proved many competitive manufacturers’ engineers wrong, when they achieved Euro6 compliance without recourse to EGR (exhaust gas recirculation), relying solely on a highly refined version of SCR (selective catalytic reduction). According to Martin Flach, Iveco’s product director in the UK, their Hi-eSCR has two distinct advantages over the industry norm of a dual SCR+EGR approach: ‘It’s about reducing complexity and avoiding the higher temperatures that come with EGR,’ he says.

There are arguments from the chemistry lab too. ‘Neither do we believe that putting exhaust gases back through the engine is conducive to a long service life,’ adds Flach. Hi-eSCR is a patented system, which also avoids an actively regenerating diesel particulate filter (DPF), and the additional cooling equipment associated with EGR. Naturally a higher AdBlue consumption rate will come with the deal, but Iveco is hoping that this will be a small trade-off for fleet engineers hunting the fuel economy prize.

Engines follow the industry trend of getting more punch from less, with the arrival of the new Tector 5 and Tector 7 engines (4.5 and 6.7 litres respectively). Horsepower choice ranges from 160hp to 210hp with the Tector 5 unit, and from 250hp to 320hp with the 6.7-litre Tector 7.

Iveco have good engineering, exceptionally wide specification choice and relative simplicity all on their side. They will need all that to combat the hot competition from DAF, Mercedes, Volvo and others. They all have new trucks to sell.