Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/522363
26 | Overdrive | June 2015 DRIVE TEST A taste of time travel I just finished a drive into the future. It was pretty uneventful – and I mean that in the most positive sense possible. Freightliner introduced its $80 mil- lion concept vehicle, Super Truck, in March. This visit to Nevada was a chance to experience firsthand how it performs as I skirted the perimeter of a wind-swept Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The truck came out of a joint five- year government-private enterprise research project announced in 2010. Freightliner received $40 million in gov- ernment funding, then matched it with $40 million of its own. The goal was to work with the U.S. Department of Energy and industry partners to develop a highly efficient truck, including a nota- ble 50 percent increase in fuel economy. The resulting Freightliner Super Truck, based on the Cascadia, is a fully-func- tional concept vehicle that will not go into production. Various design elements, however, are finding their way into Freightliner and Western Star trucks. As for the government's holy grail of fuel economy, Freightliner's test results show it made the grade. Even assum- ing a baseline as high as 8.1 miles per gallon, the fully loaded Super Truck's sustained 12.2 mpg, logged at 65 mph on Interstate 35 in Texas, equals a 50 percent increase. That was accomplished in part by: • 115 percent boost in vehicle freight efficiency over comparable tractors. • 50 percent increase in engine brak- ing. • 54 percent reduction in aerody- namic drag. The design is as sleek as it gets: Nothing juts out into the windstream. Even the door handles are tucked under- neath the door panels to achieve high aerodynamic efficiency. Behind the wheel, I was faced with high-tech instrument graphics presented The Super Truck, the fruit of an $80 million public-private research effort, achieved its fuel efficiency goals. The Cascadia-based concept truck drives as smoothly and strongly as a regular production truck. Cruising into tomorrow in Freightliner's Super Truck BY JACK ROBERTS The hood slope offers excellent visibility. The door-mounted screen shows the view from a rear-mounted camera.