LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Cat officials trumpeted acceptance of their ACERT engines at the Mid-America Trucking Show.

Since Caterpillar commenced production of its full line of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certified and compliant engines late in 2003, demand for engines equipped with ACERT has continued to grow, said Steve Brown, said Steve Brown, director of marketing for Caterpillar’s On-Highway engines. He added more than 50,000 ACERT engines have been shipped since production began in 2003.

All five models-C7, C9, C11, C13 and C15-have been in full production since 2003.

“Based on customer reports, engines with ACERT are delivering the same reliability and durability that Cat engines provided prior to October 2002,” said Brown. “We’ve been telling fleets to buy a few engines with ACERT Technology, put them to the test, compare them to engines already in their fleets and evaluate the results. We knew going in that fleets would find our new engines to be a better value; and, sure enough, that’s what they’re telling us. Test fleets put more than 23 million miles on these engines in our field evaluation tests prior to production in October of last year. The reliability is there.”

Cat’s “buy and try” philosophy is working, Brown said, adding fleets are making repeat purchases in significant numbers.

“In fact, 15 of the 25 largest fleets have put engines equipped with ACERT Technology on the road,” Brown said.
“This is the best new engine product introduction we’ve ever had-we’re shipping more than four times as many engines weekly as our nearest competitor to meet the demand.”

Brown cited industry sales figures which put Caterpillar at nearly 35 per cent of the heavy-duty industry.
He attributed the success to Cat’s track record for reliability. Fuel economy of the new Cat engines also is strong, according to Brown. “Many customers are telling us that not only has fuel economy proven to be three to five percent better than competitive products, engines with ACERT Technology also are achieving fuel economy comparable to pre-October ’02 Cat engines,” he said.

More information is available at http://www.cattruckengines.com.