At North America’s biggest commercial vehicle
exhibition, the Mid-America Trucking Show, the Daimler subsidiary Daimler
Trucks North America (DTNA) is presenting new products of the Freightliner and
Western Star US-brands as well as the SuperTruck study. The study demonstrates
a wide range of possibilities for significantly improved efficiency of road
freight transport in the future. The highlight among the production-ready
products at the trucking show is the new Western Star 5700 XE, which will be
produced in Cleveland, North Carolina, beginning in May 2015. The tractor has
sophisticated aerodynamics and is equipped with the highly efficient new
Detroit powertrain with the downsped DD15 engine and the DT12 automated
transmission. As a result, the truck consumes almost 15 percent less fuel than
the reference vehicle.
The new SuperTruck study provides further evidence
of Daimler Trucks’ technological leadership. In addition to the existing
series-production vehicles the SuperTruck from Freightliner shows how targeted
measures in aerodynamics, energy management, the use of an intelligent
powertrain and other levers can further reduce fuel consumption. For example,
the SuperTruck is equipped with the DT12 automated transmission and predictive
technology that controls the vehicle speed using GPS and digital 3D maps.
In test drives, the SuperTruck at a weight of 29.5
metric tons (65,000 lbs GVWR) consumed an average of about 19 liters of fuel
per 100 kilometers (12.2 mpg) at a speed of around 100 km/h. In
addition, the SuperTruck achieved a 115 percent freight efficiency improvement
(measured in ton-miles per gallon) over a 2009 baseline truck.
DTNA initiated the SuperTruck research and
development project in 2010. The U.S. Department of Energy supported the
project with a $40 million grant. Daimler’s SuperTruck greatly surpassed the
Department of Energy’s aim to increase the freight efficiency of U.S. Class 8
trucks by 50 percent. The project’s improvements to aerodynamics and the powertrain
have already been incorporated into the Freightliner Cascadia Evolution and
Western Star 5700 XE series-production vehicles. For example, about every
fourth Freightliner Cascadia Evolution is equipped with the automated DT12
transmission. Increasing numbers of customers appreciate the benefit of a fully
integrated Detroit powertrain from a single source, in which the engine, the
axles and the transmission come from Daimler Trucks and are thus perfectly
synchronized.
