Navistar Faces EPA Fines Up to $3,800 for Truck Engines

Navistar International Corp. (NAV), the maker of International-brand trucks, may be fined as much as $3,800 for each of its heavy-duty engines that don’t meet U.S. pollution standards.

The Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement late yesterday that it’s raising the penalties for selling non- compliant engines from as much as $2,000 apiece, as proposed seven months ago.

With the final rule, “we can now provide our dealers and customers with clarity and certainty as we transition to our clean-engine technology and look forward to utilizing” it, Troy Clarke, Navistar president and chief operating officer, said in a statement yesterday.

Navistar chose to meet tightened U.S. truck-emissions standards with exhaust gas recirculation. Competitors including Volvo AB (VOLVB) and Daimler AG (DAI) have adopted selective catalyst reduction technology, and fought the penalties the EPA had proposed in January, saying they were adopted illegally and set too low.

Nitrogen oxides exacerbate breathing and asthma problems, and can lead to the formation of ozone.

The penalty “allows manufacturers to continue producing and selling engines that come close to air-pollution standards as they work toward full compliance,” the federal agency said in its statement.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net