The GHG3 rule enacted in 2024 and slated to come into force in 2027 called for stricter greenhouse gas (GHG) emission limits and required 25 per cent of all heavy trucks sold in the U.S. to be zero emissions by 2032.

However, all of that may change significantly after U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration announced In July that it intends to remove all greenhouse gas emissions regulations on light-, medium- and heavy-duty on-highway vehicles.

“EPA proposed to rescind the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding … (which) is a prerequisite for regulating emissions from new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle engines,” the agency’s website says.

It also said that without that finding, the EPA has no statutory authority to prescribe standards for GHG emissions.

“As a result of those proposed changes, engine and vehicle manufacturers would no longer have any future obligations for the measurement, control and reporting of GHG emissions of any highway engine and vehicle, including model years manufactured prior to this proposal,” the website said.

Canada has consistently adopted U.S. emission regulations for engines to streamline North American vehicle production.

U.S. trucking associations are publicly supporting the move and have previously claimed the Biden- and Obama-era emission rules were unattainable and would add significantly to the cost of new trucks if they came into force.

U.S. government lawmakers and officials announced the plan at a news conference in Illinois on July 29.

“With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end 16 years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers,” said EPA administrator Lee Zeldin.

“In our work so far, many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year.”

The EPA is accepting written comments on the proposal until Sept. 21. After that, it is expected to move forward to becoming legislation.

The move is likely to become the subject of lawsuits by climate action groups in the U.S.

Eliminating greenhouse gas engine emissions standards is consistent with other actions the Trump administration has taken to abandon climate mitigation policies.

The U.S. withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord and has eliminated the State Department’s Office of Global Change. It will not be officially participating in the COP30 climate summit in Brazil in November, which is expected to set a global climate agenda for the next 10 years.

At least one publication has reported that representatives of heavy truck and engine original equipment manufacturers have said privately that engines compliant with the 2027 regulation will be brought to market with or without the federal mandate.

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The W900 holds the record for the longest heavy truck model to remain in continuous production. It entered service in 1963 and has continued with the same basic body style until today, although there have been a couple of minor variations.

“We know these legacy Kenworth models are an integral part of our history here at Kenworth, which makes this decision a difficult but necessary one as we enter the next era of trucking,” Kevin Haygood, Kenworth’s assistant general manager for sales and marketing, said in a release.

“The W900 is truly historic in that it’s helped shape North American trucking culture and tradition as we know it today, often seen at truck shows, featured in movies and on TV and shown at other events.”

Those include the movie Smokey and the Bandit as well as the Movin’ On TV series.

Also ending production is the narrow cab T800 model, which debuted in 1986, as well as the very heavy-duty C500 model that first appeared in 1972 and is designed for extreme heavy-haul and off-road operations.

The W990, introduced in 2018, offers an updated design with a nod to the W900 but includes a wider 2.1-metre cab, similar to most other new on-highway trucks, providing a more spacious interior. The W990 uses a little more aerodynamic design without the external air filters used on the W900.

In a statement, Kenworth said the decision to end production of these models is due to “evolving emissions regulations and component constraints as the industry moves forward with new, more efficient and better integrated technologies and products.”

A rumour had been circulating online about the company’s intent to discontinue production, which may have caused it to officially reveal its plans early, ahead of the annual MATS truck show in the United States, where it was expected to be announced.

A final call for truck orders will be announced later in 2025 and at least one dealer, Inland Kenworth, says it is still accepting orders for W900s with manual transmissions.

Kenworth’s sister company Peterbilt, under the ownership of parent company Paccar, also discontinued its classic long-hood truck, the 389, in late 2023. The 389 also had a strong following and was similar in appearance to the W900.

The Peterbilt 589 — an updated version of the 389 and its predecessors, the 379 and 359 — was given a comparable treatment to Kenworth’s W990. It keeps a hood like that used on the 389, but mates it with a wider, more aerodynamic cab.

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“It’s weird,” said Chace Barber, CEO of Edison Motors at Merritt, B.C. “In the heavy industrial world, hybrids are very common things since the 1930s. Freight trains are all hybrid diesel-electric, all the Cat mine trucks, LeTourneau loaders from back in the ’60s. There’s so much diesel-electric out there that it’s weird the trucks didn’t do it.”

Barber’s start-up company plans to change that. It has designed a hybrid electric drive for heavy trucks that can greatly reduce engine emissions, and it provides operators with a lot of other advantages by keeping the engineering simple.

“We’re loggers and started thinking electrical kind of makes sense here,” he added. “You go up empty, you come down loaded, you could recapture that power and torque. I just kind of got mad at the way I saw electric vehicles going. There’s so much planned obsolescence. Nothing was being built tough for logging or vocational industries.

“I was talking with my business partner, Eric (Little), about how we’d build a truck, saying I’d do it this way. So we said, let’s just do it then.”

That led to the creation of Edison Motors, which is preparing to launch its hybrid conversion kit business to give new life to existing heavy- and light-duty trucks.

While major manufacturers are offering hybrid passenger vehicle and half-ton trucks, none have focused on larger hybrids, instead, like Tesla and Paccar for example, offering full battery EV models, which have significant range limitations.

“My theory for why they (heavy truck manufacturers) don’t do hybrid, is because hybrid doesn’t make sense on the highway,” said Barber. “Running three hours straight on the highway at 100 km/h pulling 80,000 pounds, you don’t need big torque. You can’t take advantage of the regeneration transmission to run efficiently. You may get a five per cent increase in fuel savings by going (hybrid) electric, and that’s not really worth the cost to do the R&D.”

That’s not the case for vocational uses such as logging, where there are varying high power and torque demands, and no recharging stations in sight. It’s a similar work situation to farming.

“I think it makes sense on a farm,” he said. “You can start running additional electrical attachments. Farmers want a good, reliable work truck. Farmers want to be able to work and maintain stuff themselves. The whole philosophy there is save some money on fuel, be able to work on it, tinker with it. I think the agricultural world is neglected by big trucks.

“The vocational things, the farmers, the loggers, they want different things out of their trucks.”

Metal and wires

Refitting an older truck that uses many simpler, generic components, which was standard manufacturing practice for all heavy truck brands a couple of decades ago, can make on-farm repairs a simpler and less expensive process as well as create a more environmentally-friendly vehicle.

“Generic components, like the old-school turn signals, they’re $40 or $50 if you buy them new,” Barber notes. “Everything in them is just metal, wires and a little bit of solder. If it wears out, you can fix it. The turn signal on a brand new truck is $400 or $500 now. It’s getting stupid. They’re plastic with membrane CANBUS switches you can’t fix or replace.

“If you’ve got a truck with a blown motor or rear ends but a good frame and good body, why buy a whole new truck. You can just upgrade the one you got. That being said, it’s not always the cheapest way.”

Barber says providing an exact quote on a retrofit can be difficult. It depends what an owner wants, and there can be a lot of specification differences in heavy vocational trucks.

“For a brand new one, it’s about 20 or 30 per cent more than a mechanical diesel one,” he said. “That’s the easiest way for me to say that because there’s so much variation in the vocational truck world. For what you’re getting, expect to pay 20 or 30 per cent more, if you want us to build you a brand new one.”

And for those wanting to retrofit a light-duty truck, a range of options can change the cost there as well.

“That’s the one that’s hard to give a price on,” he added. “Depending what you want, It could be as low as a third of the cost (of a new truck), depending on how simple you want to go. Some people want to do really fancy things, others just want a basic work truck.”

Edison’s heavy truck conversions use a C9 (nine-litre) Caterpillar diesel mated to a generator and an electric drive motor on each axle. That would typically replace a 13- or 15-litre engine and still provide the same or better peak torque. The C9 runs at a constant 1,700 r.p.m. with a consistent load demand while powering the generator, unlike conventional drivelines which require a range of engine speeds and power demands. That further minimizes emissions.

The light truck conversions use a 3.2-litre C3 Caterpillar engine. It’s also possible to use any type of engine, not just a diesel in the conversion.

“I like diesel, because it’s simple, reliable and everywhere has it,” Barber said. “Propane is a cheap fuel. It burns cleanly, but it doesn’t give you a lot of torque. But with a generator, you don’t need that torque. The generator isn’t trying to power a truck off the line. So you could put a clean propane motor in and still have all the power and torque of an electric.”

Batteries included

Rather than the lithium-ion battery packs used by major automotive EV manufacturers, the Edison conversions use lithium-iron batteries.

“Iron is a little bit heavier, but it’s a lot safer,” said Barber. “But because it’s a hybrid, you’re really not adding that many batteries.”

Currently, the company is working with a number of mechanics across Canada and the U.S. who have signed up to be installers.

“We’re getting them trained on how to install this,’ he said. “We’re hoping to have the kits (available) to the general public in about two years. Then they can take their truck to one of these installers, swap the axles, put the generator on, drop the transmission, put the batteries in and connect everything up.”

Aside from just providing conversion kits for existing trucks, Edison has also designed and built a complete hybrid truck of its own that can be custom ordered to match a buyer’s specifications.

Edison is currently accepting reservations for conversions. And Barber says demand has exceeded his expectations. He thinks it may be because the major manufacturers haven’t exactly hit on what truck buyers really want, which is the flexibility and advantages of the hybrid design.

“There are heavy orders from Texas, Alberta, the Dakotas, places where people typically hate EVs,” said Barber. “I’ve talked to a lot of installers in those areas, and they’re not against electric. They’re just against the way it’s being rammed down their throats. They don’t like that you can’t work on or service new vehicles. You can’t tow or work with them, but that’s what we need our trucks for. We’re not using our trucks as grocery getters. I just want to do a full day’s work like I do with my normal truck.

“They’re saying the hybrid approach makes sense. Put a generator in it. I’ll burn less fuel with more power and it’ll be a simpler system.”

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