Trucks at Work Blog

“With the new package, the engine runs in its sweet spot at any given speed, never straying from its sweet spot at any point from zero through top speed.” –Ed Saxman, product manager–powertrain, for Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA) commenting on the OEMs new integrated “XE13” integrated powertrain package introduced in late 2011

“Integration” is a hot topic of late in trucking circles, as OEMs and fleets alike seek ways to drive down fuel consumption while simultaneously maintaining or even improving overall vehicle performance. Indeed, I spent several days last week with some of the top executives from Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) discussing this “integration” trend and what they’re doing along in that area.

Now, integration is nothing new in the truck OEM world – indeed, Landon Sproull, chief engineer for Peterbilt Motors Co., told me in a recent interview that “integration” is at the core of what truck makers do for a living, both in the past in the present; taking a range of disparate parts, from axles to transmissions and engines, and packaging it all together on a chassis frame.

The difference today, though, is that OEMs and fleets alike are keeping the pressure on to wring every smidgen of efficiency out of trucks of all shapes and sizes today in search of savings no matter how small – whether it’s by burning less fuel, lengthening service intervals, or reducing downtime for maintenance. And that’s where this new emphasis on integration comes into play.

Take Volvo Trucks North America’s (VTNA) new XE13 (with the “XE” standing for “exceptional efficiency”) powertrain package unveiled in September last year.

It combines Volvo’s proprietary I-Shift automated manual transmission (AMT) and D-13 engine with modified software in a VN Class 8 tractor model to allow the vehicle to “cruise” down the highway under load at 65 mph with the engine only cranking at 1150 rpm – about 200 rpm less than the average truck sold today, noted Ed Saxman, VTNA’s product manager–powertrain.

“Customers gain about a 1.5% fuel efficiency improvement for every 100 rpm of ‘downspeeding’ like this, so fleets specing the XE13 package can expect up to a 3% fuel economy improvement when compared to another overdrive transmission in a similar operation,” he explained. more

“Water, water, everywhere … Nor any drop to drink.” –Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

It’s seems a little bizarre, frankly, to contemplate an automaker’s publicly avowed effort to reduce the amount of water consumed by its vehicle manufacturing efforts.

I mean, one can more readily understand efforts to, say, reduce the amount of aluminum, steel, plastics, and other such raw materials that go into the making of cars these days.

But water? Really? Frankly, it’s a little hard to grasp this concept — at least initially.

Then, of course, one begins to realize that the thousands of people staffing vehicle manufacturing plants around the world use an awful lot of water each day.

Water is also a key ingredient in vehicle paints, too, thus making the paint chemistry part of water conservation efforts as well when it comes to vehicle manufacturing. more

“The optimal city bus must be inviting and safe to ride in, it should be convenient to board and exit, and the journey should be quick. These are the main areas on which we have focused with the new bus we are currently testing in regular service.” –Peter Danielsson, project manager, Volvo Buses

Ah, the ubiquitous city bus – a vehicle considered by many to be the “Rodney Dangerfield” of the trucking world, as they just get no respect for the job they do.

I’ll wager that motorists of all stripes (truckers included) have ground their teeth in frustration more than once in the driving lifetimes when penned in behind a slow-moving bus wending its ponderous way along traffic-choked streets. Even those commuters that use public transportation tend to disrespect the bus, favoring instead the sleek feel of light rail systems (something that the Portland Tribune discovered in a story posted back in 2007).

Yet buses remain the simplest (and often cheapest) form of public transportation available to our ever more heavily congested cities. For that reason, the folks at Volvo Buses are rolling out a new redesigned model (at left) aimed at making this stalwart vehicle a more attractive option to the public, fellow motorists, and bus drivers alike. more

“Dandelions have the potential to serve as a great natural alternative to synthetic rubber in our products.” –Angela Harris, research engineer, Ford Motor Co.

First we hear about using recycled carpet fibers to make engine cylinder head covers. Now full-scale testing of vehicle interior materials made from weeds – specifically, dandelions and guayule, a shrub common in the southwestern U.S. – is making the news.

Pretty soon, if this keeps up, we might see vehicle engineers sporting garden gloves and pruning shears along with their laptops and CAD/CAM systems.

“We’re always looking for new sustainable materials to use in our vehicles that have a smaller carbon footprint to produce and can be grown locally,” noted Angela Harris, a research engineer with Ford Motor Co. “Synthetic rubber is not a sustainable resource, so we want to minimize its use in our vehicles when possible. Dandelions have the potential to serve as a great natural alternative to synthetic rubber in our products.” more

“One area we found very interesting is Michigan State University’s analysis that the actual car shopping experience is three times more important to ‘Generation Y’ than vehicle design … and must connect across the evaluation, sales and post-sales cycles.” –Joe Vitale, with Deloitte LLP’s automotive practice and Generation Y research program

It’s a sure-fire given that automobiles and heavy commercial trucks live and work in vastly different transportation worlds, in terms of everything from daily/yearly mileage, vehicle handling characteristics, on down to the dominant type of fuel consumed (gasoline versus diesel, respectively).

Yet it’s also a sure-fire given that people – good, old fashion living-and-breathing humans – are required to operate both, and thus commonalities are bound to be shared.

That “commonality” regarding the human experience is one reason trucks today are quieter, more comfortable, provide far more stopping power, and often times don’t require any shifting of gears. They’ve become in many respects “car-like” because the folks driving today’s advanced automobiles don’t want to take a “step down” when they enter the cab of a big rig.

In a larger sense, a similar trendline may be starting to develop on the buying/selling side of the truck equation, if new research compiled by consulting firm Deloitte LLP pans out. more

“Drivelines are at once very simple yet very complex components. They are very important in terms of vehicle reliability. It’s one of those components that often goes largely unnoticed but is oftentimes very critical to vehicle uptime and operation.” –Karl Mayer, ArvinMeritor’s director-product line management for drivelines

Let’s face it: drivelines aren’t the sexiest component on a big rig. Heck, they aren’t even visible, unless you crawl under a Class 8 truck and look up underneath at the chassis.

You can hear the big growl of a diesel; you physically interact with the transmission, either manually changing the gears or at least moving the shift lever from ‘P’ to ‘D’. Tires, wheel hubs, axles, not to mention cab styles, all get their day in the sun, so to speak. But a driveline? C’mon, man – it’s a couple of tubes, a u-joint, and yokes. Not much to write home about, as the saying goes.

Yet without the driveline, the truck doesn’t move, for it connects the transmission to the axles. No driveline means no torque reaches the axles, which turn the wheels on the asphalt. To badly butcher an old phrase, pop a driveline and your trucking goose is cooked; you won’t be limping anywhere without it. more

“[North American] OEMs, and their suppliers, must focus like never before on whatever is necessary to customize low-cost [truck] products for emerging markets. The alternative is to cede half of the global market and, thereby, perhaps a company’s long-term future.” –Francesco Barosi, managing director at AlixPartners and head of the firm’s commercial vehicle practice

It’s not exactly what you’d call a “positive” outlook, by any means, when you’re projecting that North American truck OEMs will get shut out of about half of the global vehicle market by 2014 if they can’t find a way to build cheaper commercial vehicles.

That, however, is the conclusion reached in a recent study by AlixPartners LLP, which found that North American OEMs are being outflanked both by emerging-market-based OEM – now accounting for two thirds of global commercial-truck production – and by European competitors that gained “first-mover” advantage vis-à-vis partnerships with low-cost indigenous companies.

This comes of something of a shock as North American OEMs are also doing a lot better these days. After weathering an unprecedented global volume decline of 29% in 2009, AlixPartners said North American OEMs are recovering and production is expected to return to those experienced in 2008 within the next two to three years.

However, “native” truck builders in China, India and Russia together are also reviving – and are expected to boost their output by some 50% over the next four years, according to AlixPartners’ findings, due to the strength of domestic economies and demand from other emerging markets in Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Central America.

“North American OEMs are not well positioned to exploit this increasing demand in emerging markets because of a mismatch of product types, a lack of local partners and, especially, too-high costs,” noted Francesco Barosi, managing director at AlixPartners and head of the firm’s commercial vehicle practice, in the company’s report.

In fact, AlixPartners found that even with a growing demand for a so-called “middle segment” of more sophisticated trucks on the horizon in BRIC [Brazil, Russia, Indian, and China] and other emerging markets, the cost of these vehicles is still 40% to 50% less than the average North American-made truck.

“The key for North American OEMs is to focus on how to quickly gain a foothold in the ‘middle segment,’” Barosi explained. “However, that’s all the more difficult today because there are now only a few ‘unmarried’ joint-venture partners left in China, India and Russia to aid in lowering costs.”

A similar ongoing study being conducted by Frost & Sullivan is also turning up some of the same warning signs. Ryan Carmichael, who’s working on the firm’s Strategic Analysis of the Global Low Cost Truck Market, told me that “low cost” for light commercial vehicles (LCVs) translates into a sticker price equivalent to $5,000-$6,000, with medium commercial vehicles (MCVs) running around $15,000 to $17,000, and for heavy commercial vehicles (HCVs), some $24,000 to $30,000.

“This isn’t just about the acquisition price point for commercial trucks in emerging markets, either,” he stressed. “If the global economy stays on its low-growth trend, even fleets in developed nations may start to look at low cost trucks as a way to significantly reduce their capital investments. So the question North American truck makers must answer is this: do you have a strategy to deal with this?”

According to AlixPartners, this puts immediate pressure on North American truck OEMs to engage in what the firm dubs “value engineering” – a systematic method to improve the value of products by a close examination of function, on a global level.

“North American companies must invest in producing simpler designs for commercial vehicle components so that they can generate the significant cost improvements – up to 50% – necessary to compete in the future,” noted Tai Li, a director within AlixPartners’ commercial vehicle practice.

“Furthermore, in order to penetrate emerging markets, a key priority for suppliers as well as OEMs should be to invest in developing low-cost products better customized to the needs of these markets,” Li said.

Frost & Sullivan’s Carmichael, though, again pointed out that this “value engineering” must be applied in so-called “home-base” markets, too. “We think we’ll see low cost LCVs and MCVs start to enter the U.S. market in two to three years,” he told me.

Yet there’s a silver lining (of sorts) to be found in all of this, believe it or not, because Carmichael noted that his firm’s research also discovered that most U.S. fleet managers still remain more comfortable buying trucks with brand names they know well. That’s where the partnerships North American truck OEMs make with their overseas counterparts becomes critical.

Take Chicago-based Navistar’s joint venture forged with India’s Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. five years ago, for example. The Mahindra-Navistar Automotives Ltd. (MNAL) joint venture is now rolling out a family of commercial trucks and tractors in the range of 25-, 31- , 40- and 49- ton (equivalent GVW ranges of approximately 56,000 up to 109,000 lbs) and eventually expects to be a “full-range commercial vehicle player” building from 3.5-ton GVW to 49-ton GVW commercial trucks, with variants of passenger transport, cargo and specialized load applications.

[You can view some comments Navistar’s Dee Kapur made late last year in an interview with NDTV about the importance of this joint venture below.]

This is an example of a joint venture combining two engineering sets, Frost & Sullivan’s Carmichael said, specifically combining Navistar’s diesel engine and emission control expertise with Mahindra’s truck chassis design. “Together, they’ve created true global low cost truck platforms – ones that could make their way to the U.S. at some point down the road,” he said.

The truck, however, is to build trucks specifically tailored to individual market needs off such a global platform. That’ll be critical as the national rankings for truck demand are set to undergo a big shift, according to AlixPartners’ research:

• China’s commercial vehicle production volume increased by 22% in 2009, while volume globally decreased by 29%.

• Today, China accounts for 49% of total BRIC commercial vehicle production, which in turn accounts for 66% of global production.

• As part of the expected Western OEM recovery, North American Class-8 truck production is expected to increase by 25% in 2010 to 150,000 units.

• By 2014, the global commercial vehicle industry is expected to grow by 1.8 million units, with China expected to account for 36% of total global growth.

“What this indicates is that we’re more firmly heading towards the creation of global truck and engine platforms that can be ‘tweaked’ to meet national, regional, and even local customer needs,” Frost & Sullivan’s Carmichael said. “They’ll be modified to meet various regulatory demands, in terms of emissions and safety.”

But another question remains, he told me: does “low-cost” offer a successful long-term strategy for OEMs overall? For building low-cost trucks is going to be a very low margin business no doubt – something tough to survive on, especially as national governments around the world keep tacking on new rules to reduce truck exhaust pollution and improve their safety profile.

It’s just one more complex set of trends OEMs must manage as the chart their future course.

“Electric vehicle (EV) batteries need considerable improvement in terms of energy storage capacity, size, weight, and cost. [And] the rapidly developing and evolving market for EVs is boosting demand for new battery technologies … causing a potential bottleneck in battery supply.” –Robert Outram, global program manager for transportation chemicals, Frost & Sullivan

Whether we’re talking about all-electric vehicles (EVs) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), they both require large battery capacity to operate. Indeed, for these vehicles to truly make a positive connection with both consumers and commercial fleets, batteries that are lightweight, last a long time, and deliver long range in excess of 100 miles per charge will be critical.

Yet this is exactly where a big logjam may be developing – in terms of the pace of battery technology improvements as well as supply – which could hinder the big expectations for sales of EVs and PHEVs.

Take the projections from Pike Research, for example, which projects worldwide adoption of PHEVs and EVs should grow quickly over the next five years, with sales totaling 3.2 million vehicles between 2010 and 2015 – resulting in a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 106%.

“EVs will follow the lead of hybrids and will be launched in the small car segment for consumer markets initially, with the small SUV [sport utility vehicle] segment close behind,” said Dave Hurst, a senior analyst with Pike.

“Because of their low weight and good aerodynamics, smaller vehicles are far more efficient to better extend the electrically powered driving range, and the smaller vehicle segments also allow the use of a smaller, less expensive battery,” he noted.

[Here, Nancy Gioia, director of global electrification for Ford Motor Co. gives an OEMs view of the potential global EV and PHEV market down the road.]

Hurst added that China is expected to be the largest market for electric vehicles, with more than 888,000 PHEVs and EVs sold by 2015, representing 27% of worldwide sales. Yet he also forecasts that the U.S. will be close behind with 841,000 vehicles sold, or 26% of the global market.

However, those numbers might be problematic if battery capability and supply can’t keep up. Robert Outram, global program manager for transportation chemicals for research firm Frost & Sullivan, noted in recent analysis that the rapid expansion of the EV industry developed, after decades of slow development, is causing a potential bottleneck in battery supply.

“All the major automotive manufacturers are developing EVs – considered the next generation of vehicles and a means for OEMs to differentiate themselves to stay ahead of the competition,” he explained. “Escalating oil prices and environmental concerns are driving governments to grant incentives and encourage zero emission vehicles, further endorsing the importance of EVs and stepping-up the demand for EV batteries.”

Outram said lithium-ion batteries currently offer the best potential in terms of a lightweight design providing long life and long distance per charge, with expectations that demand for this type of battery will result in a CAGR of 125% from 2010 to 2016.

Yet only a few of what Outram dubs “market participants” can readily supply the components that go into making lithium-ion batteries, such as separators, anodes, cathodes, electrolytes as well as binders and casings, with beefy enough suppliers particularly in short supply in Europe.

That could potential cause a bottleneck for the entire EV batteries market, he said.

“Chemical and battery companies have failed to keep pace with the development of vehicles as electric vehicles have been promised for many years,” Outram said. “Up until recently the market has failed to materialize causing chemical companies to develop a ‘wait and see’ attitude toward battery material development.”

Now, with the market finally taking off, very few companies are in a position to capitalize on the opportunities, he believes. “EV batteries need also considerable improvement in terms of energy storage capacity, size, weight, and cost,” Outram stressed.

The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is taking a step in that direction after receiving a contract from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) for $1.2 million to develop advanced anode materials for lithium-ion batteries – one of several such awards from the LBNL’s Batteries for Advanced Transportation Technologies (BATT) program.

SwRI said its lithium-ion project is scheduled to begin in January 2011 and should be completed by December 2014. “The objective of this project is to investigate how silicon clathrates can be used to improve the performance of lithium batteries,” said Dr. Kwai Chan, the project manager for SwRI’s four-year effort. “The primary application for the technology is electric, hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid electric automobiles.”

Currently, he said most lithium-ion batteries have a 10-year life expectancy and a range of 10 miles between charges. Thus the goal of the DOE’s lithium-ion research effort is to quadruple the range and double the energy density of these batteries within the next four years while extending the battery life to greater than 10 years.

“Silicon clathrate is a form of silicon with a cage structure that researchers believe can be used to store lithium at the battery anode, and the clathrate’s soccer-ball-like structure would trap the lithium ions in a compact space, thereby providing a higher energy density and longer battery life,” noted SwRI’s Dr. Michael Miller, who is also on the project team.

OEMs are pushing forward on their own, as well. Ford, for example, is deploying heated and cooled liquid lithium-ion batteries for increased life and range for its Ford Focus Electric, which rolls out in the U.S. late next year and in Europe in 2012.

The automaker said thermal management of lithium-ion battery systems is critical to the success of all-electric vehicles because extreme temperatures can affect performance, reliability, safety and durability – and that’s why Ford chose to use an active liquid-cooling and heating system to regulate the temperature of its lithium-ion battery packs, noted Sherif Marakby, director of Ford’s electrification program and engineering

“All-electric vehicles do not have a conventional engine on board, so it is critical we maximize the performance of the battery under various operating temperatures,” said Marakby. “Active liquid systems are more effective than air systems at regulating lithium-ion battery temperature.”

The active liquid cooling and heating system also enables the Focus Electric to automatically precondition the battery pack temperature during daily recharging, Marakby added.

On hot days, chilled water absorbs heat from the batteries, dispersing it through a radiator before pumping it through the chiller again. On cold days, heated water warms the batteries, gradually bringing the system’s temperature to a level that allows it to efficiently accept charge energy and provide enough discharge power for expected vehicle performance, noted Anand Sankaran, Ford’s executive technical leader for energy storage and HV systems.

“Extreme temperatures impact a battery’s life and performance, making it crucial to have an effective cooling and heating system to regulate temperature for these demanding applications,” Sankaran added.

Delivering battery systems like what’s powering Ford’s EV on a mass scale with consistent quality is what’ll be the real truck here, I think – and that’s but one of the critical factors that’ll make or break the acceptance of EVs by the consumers and commercial fleets alike.

“The 2011 truck is selling well ahead of our initial forecasts.” –Sumio Fukaya, Chairman of Hino Motors Manufacturing and President of Hino Motors Sales

Though economic forecasts are turning pessimistic and fleets remain super-cautious regarding freight volumes, thus dampening down demand for new equipment, there are a few bright spots out there in the truck manufacturing world.

Take Hino Motors USA, for example. A division of Toyota, Hino’s established a small factory in (get this) Williamstown, WV, that’s witnessing something of production boom, albeit on a very tiny scale.

And even though the reporter in the clip below wryly notes that a company opening a 150-person plant would not have been news just a few years back, anything positive on the employment front is worthy of note these days – but especially so in the hard-pressed truck making world.

Last year, Hino won bids to supply approximately 175 highway maintenance and snow plow trucks to the West Virginia Department of Highways and so far has already delivered more than 90 of those units to that agency.

“Companies like Hino will play a key role in creating jobs and providing economic security for West Virginia,” noted State Senator Carte Goodwin at an event Hino held at its plant a few weeks back. “For our state to thrive, we need companies like this that are bringing jobs and generating revenue right here in Wood County (WV).”

Some other positive news is occurring a ways south of Williamstown in Dublin, VA – home to Volvo Trucks North America’s New River Valley (NRV) assembly plant. Next week, the company is recalling about 270 people to support a production ramp-up driven by increased orders, according to Volvo Spokesman John Mies.

“The NRV plant currently employs just over 1,200 people, so this recall represents a staffing increase of about 23%,” he noted. “We don’t publicly discuss our build rates, but obviously a recall of this size is in line with a significant increase in production.”

Volvo’s racked up come nice hefty orders this year, such as 370 trucks for Knight Transportation back in February, and 600 from Penske Truck Leasing in May.

Some similar good news is to be heard from Volvo’s brother company, Mack Trucks, which is planning to add about 125 people at its Macungie Assembly Operations factory up in Pennsylvania beginning the first week of October.

“The Macungie plant currently employs about 750 people, and we employ a total of about 1,000 people in the Lehigh Valley. This increase in employment referenced above comes on the heels of our recall of 75 people in June,” noted Mack spokesman John Walsh.

“At this point, it is anticipated that in addition to recalling folks currently on layoff, we will need to hire new employees as well, but it’s too soon to say exactly how many,” he added.

While Mack said the construction market remains very weak, it’s experiencing an uptick in order activity on the highway and refuse truck sides of its business.

Mack’s Walsh noted that, through July, the company’s U.S. retail sales are up about 17% in part due to some big orders, like the 325-truck order from Chrysler Group Transport back in July; an order that effectively replaces its entire fleet operating in the U.S and Canada.

None of this due to huge increases in business, mind you. In fact, new commercial vehicle registrations only made a slight gain of 3.1% over the last six months compared to the same timeframe in 2009, noted Gary Meteer, R. L. Polk & Co.’s director of sales and client services. And, of course, all of this activity could collapse like a house of cards if the economy lurches back into recession – something all of us are fervently hoping does NOT occur.

Still, these remain positive signs that new truck sales are finally starting to creep up at least enough to warrant the addition of more production jobs. And in these hard times, that’s good news indeed.

“Domestic automakers have made impressive strides in steadily improving vehicle quality, particularly since 2007.” –David Sargent, vice president of global vehicle research, J.D. Power and Associates

It’s a significant achievement by the U.S. automotive industry that needs to be remembered yet also built upon: domestic auto brands, as a whole, demonstrated higher initial quality than import brands according to the 2010 U.S. Initial Quality Study (IQS) put together by J.D. Power and Associates – the first time they’ve ever achieved this distinction over the 24 years J.D. Power has conducted this study, the research firm said.

Overall, the industry average for initial quality is 109 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) in 2010, increasing slightly from 108 PP100 in 2009. However, initial quality for domestic brands as a whole has improved by four PP100 in 2010 to an average of 108 PP100, J.D. Power’s research indicated – slightly better than the initial quality of import brands, which averages 109 PP100 in 2010.

In particular, substantial improvements by specific domestic models – including Ford Motor Co.’s Focus small car, Chrysler’s Ram 1500 LD pickup and General Motor’s Buick Enclave crossover – drove the overall improvement of domestic automakers in 2010. In particular, initial quality of Ford models has improved steadily for the past nine years.

In addition, J.D. Power said Ford, as a corporation (which includes Volvo) has 12 models that rank within the top three in their respective segments in 2010 – more than any other automaker this year – with GM nipping at their heels with 10 models ranking within the top three in their segments.

[One of the ways Ford, for one, hopes to stay in the top quality rankings, while also delivering vehicles with more power and better fuel economy, is via new EcoBoost engine technology. You can see a clip about these new engines below.]

“This year may mark a key turning point for U.S. brands as they continue to fight the battle against lingering negative perceptions of their quality,” said David Sargent, J.D. Power’s vice president of global vehicle research.

Historically, newly launched models have incurred substantially more quality problems than carryover models, on average. However, more than one-half of all models launched during the 2010 model year perform better than their respective segment averages, he said.

“With automakers committing huge budgets for the design, engineering, production and marketing of all-new models and major redesigns, hitting the quality mark out of the gate is critical,” noted Sargent.

“Getting initial quality right on model launches can serve dual purposes for automakers – boosting profitability and also inspiring consumer confidence in the overall quality of their models,” he added. “Having a strong quality image is essential for automakers to be able to compete in today’s market – both in the U.S. and around the globe.”

Yet this only the starting point on a long road that needs to be travelled, he stressed, as domestic automotive manufacturers need to consistently prove to consumers that they can produce models with quality that equals or beats that of the import brands.

“Achieving quality comparability is the first half of the battle; convincing consumers – particularly import buyers – that they have done this is the second half,” Sargent pointed out.

[GM plans to keep plugging away at consumer perceptions of its products on a number of fronts, especially in the car segment with new vehicles like the 2011 Chevy Cruze, seen below. Note the focus in this clip on smaller displacement yet more powerful engines as well as extreme durability testing for the Cruze.]

Still, it’s a noteworthy moment for domestic OEMs that have long fallen short of the top quality mark. The Ford brand, for example, moved to fifth place among all brands from eighth last year. This is the highest position Ford has achieved in the IQS since ranking 23rd in 2004, the automaker noted. Its luxury brand, Lincoln, which was 26th on the list in 2009, now sits at eighth.

“Steady and meticulous attention to new model launches along with consistency in how we do them across the brand and the globe are having a very positive effect on the initial quality of our all-new or redesigned products,” said Bennie Fowler, Ford’s group vice president for global quality & new model launches.

Yet a lot of pain and suffering also must be accounted alongside the top quality scores U.S. automakers are now nabbing. Ford, for one, shut down its 70 year-old Mercury brand in early June, which followed the selloff of the Land Rover and Jaguar luxury brands as the company consolidated cash in order to ratchet product engineering and quality up to higher levels.

GM’s been doing the same, going through bankruptcy proceedings last year with the aid of Federal bailout monies, also while shedding former product labels such as Pontiac, Saturn, Saab, and Hummer. It’s been a trying time to say the least for GM, but it’s also managed to still knock a few out of the park, with the redesigned Chevrolet Malibu mid-size sedan still garnering critical praise, along with its redesigned pickups and crossovers (especially the Chevy Traverse).

None of the domestic automakers are out of the woods yet – not by a long shot – but the IQS numbers this year at the very least show they are on the right path, firing on all cylinders.