How OEM selection of Delo® for Factory Fill benefits our customers

In October, we announced that Daimler Trucks North America, the parent company of Freightliner and Western Star trucks, has selected Chevron’s Delo® 400 ZFA SAE 10W-30, an API FA-4 performance lubricant, as its factory fill engine oil for all new trucks starting January 1, 2019. Of course, it’s an honor to be partnered with the company named for the inventor of the commercial truck. And it is a big business win for Chevron. But is also a win for the users of Delo products.

OEM specifications for lubricants usually demand a higher level of performance than base API specifications. For their factory fill oils, truck OEMs often require additional testing with higher performance standards. To be selected as the factory fill provider, a lubricant producer must complete an extensive OEM-driven qualification process. The precise evaluation requirements are proprietary to the OEM and therefore closely guarded. Suffice to say, they are extremely rigorous. Where the API specifications may require ten engine tests for one product and OEM specifications add another set of engine tests, factory fill requirements often include additional, more stringent, performance levels as well as exhaustive field testing. The process will likely also include durability and oxidation testing at longer durations than the standard API testing requires. All of this helps ensure we are delivering the higher level of performance necessary to fulfill the requirements for factory fill.

We learn a lot through this highly collaborative, co-development process. By working closely with OEMs to meet their specifications, we see firsthand where engine design is headed. This enables us to develop the lubrication technology of the future that can support the next generation of engine design. At the same time, by meeting the unique, proprietary requirements for the OEM’s factory fill fluid, we deliver that same high level of performance to meet the similarly demanding needs of our customers.

This is not a first for Chevron. PACCAR, the parent company of Peterbilt and Kenworth Trucks, has used Delo engine oil as its factory fill oil for more than 20 years. With Daimler, that adds up to a substantial share of brand new trucks coming off the assembly line with Chevron products in their engines. If these manufacturers trust Delo to launch their trucks into service, it simply makes sense for fleet operators to keep using those same Delo products over the life of their Freightliner, Western Star, Kenworth and Peterbilt vehicles.