Freightliner stole the spotlight the Mid-America Trucking Show last week the moment they pulled the cover off the company’s SuperTruck concept vehicle. Aggressive aero features and unconventional styling left many jaws agape.
But concept vehicles aren’t all together new in trucking. Many major OEs have either recently wrapped up a project or are currently testing one, and the designs and data that come from the development process are literally shaping the future of the Class 8 tractor.
Like their light truck counterparts, commercial truck makers such as Freightliner use concept trucks as a function test for ideas “that weren’t quite ready for prime time,” says TJ Reed, director of product strategy for Daimler Trucks North America. Reed adds Freightliner used its Revolution concept truck to test features that were later moved into the Cascadia Evolution.
Not coincidentally, many of the body forms created for Freightliner’s earlier-generation concept – the Innovation truck – were rolled forward into the development of Revolution, including an internal antenna and utilizing cameras as mirrors.
The list of SuperTruck’s accomplishments is impressive: a 115 percent boost in vehicle freight efficiency, compared to conventional tractors on the market today. Other enhancements include a 50.2 percent increase in engine brake, a 54 percent reduction in overall aerodynamic drag and a sustained 12.2 miles per gallon logged at 65 miles per hour on a stretch of I-35 between San Antonio and Dallas, Texas. And Freightliner has already began integrating several features, likeaerodynamic upgrades and the smart transmission, into current units.
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In 2013, Navistar debuted its Project Horizon – a truck Chris Ito, director of innovation and design for Navistar, says was designed to make an “aerodynamic statement.” Ito says Navistar used journalist and driver feedback to gauge which cosmetic concepts were working and which were falling flat.
