Freightliner on Wednesday at Manifest Vegas, a global logistics and supply chain technology showcase held in Las Vegas this week, debuted its SuperTruck II, the company's second entry in a pair of multi-million dollar projects co-funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) that aim to reduce emissions from on-road freight transportation and increase freight efficiency.
Freightliner unveiled its first SuperTruck in 2015, capping a five-year development process with the DOE and industry manufacturers and suppliers. Many of the features from the first Freightliner SuperTruck can be found on current Cascadia models, like enhanced aerodynamics, improved engine thermal efficiency and powertrain integration technologies such as downspeeding, and predictive powertrain controls.
Now, eight years later, SuperTruck II leans on enhanced tractor aerodynamics, low-rolling resistance tires, powertrain improvements and energy management with advanced technologies as innovations that could also potentially enter production.
Rather than simply chase benchmark numbers, Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) Senior Vice President of Engineering and Technology Rainer Mueller-Finkeldei said the company intently focused on improvements to core truck components "based on the objective to maximize freight efficiency for our customers while helping to reduce the carbon footprint of trucks and engines. Taken all together, the combined innovations developed for the Freightliner SuperTruck II have provided us the opportunity to explore the technologies needed to meet stringent and forthcoming Greenhouse Gas reduction requirements in the coming years.”
The first SuperTruck overachieved DOE requirements with a 115% boost in vehicle freight efficiency (compared to conventional tractors available at the time); a 50.2% increase in engine brake efficiency; a 54% 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.
SuperTruck II has three targets: a greater than 100% improvement in vehicle freight efficiency (on a ton-mile-per-gallon basis) relative to a 2009 baseline for a long-haul freight application; a demonstration of a minimum 55% engine BTE at 65 mph (104 km/h) on a dynamometer; and the development of cost effective efficiency technologies.
Like its older sibling, Freightliner's SuperTruck II too surpassed expectations with high marks in aerodynamics, tires, powertrain and energy management, while also doubling the freight efficiency of the base vehicle from the start of the SuperTruck program.
