In the automotive world, car and pickup bodies tend to get refreshed about every five years. Looks grow stale and dated, but style points are considerably less important in commercial trucking than they are to the person looking to drop $60,000 on a new C8 Corvette or Challenger Hellcat.
Peterbilt General Manager Jason Skoog, who called the styling on the recently re-announced 579 "bold," said the refresh was done on a pre-planned update cycle, and was well timed with Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions requirements changing for model year 2021.
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"We did the [Model] 386 in 2005, the 579 in 2012, and this is about the time for an update," he said. "We just felt like the big opportunity, once we really started designing here, was to take that aerodynamics to that next level."
On the power side, the new MX-13 engine gets a 2% fuel economy bump, while the MX-11 will see a 2.5% bump for the 2021 model year. As for the rest of Pete's updated Model 579, technology and aerodynamics do the heavy lifting.
