“Sometimes customers ask me, ‘Should we wait [to buy trucks]? When is your best truck coming?’ I tell them: If you wait, you’ll wait forever because the best truck is the one you’re getting today from us,” Martin Daum, president and chief executive officer of Daimler Trucks of North America, said to a room of journalists during a press event at the Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) last month in Louisville, Ky. “It’s not we have misery today and paradise comes tomorrow—we have a great today even more coming tomorrow. It’s what I call evolutionary improvement. We don’t need a revolution. We don’t need to throw away what we have today or yesterday. It is a continuous improvement.”
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The message this trade show season was clear: There is still more efficiency to gain from today’s truck equipment. About the same time that Daimler was unveiling its amazingly efficient SuperTruck at MATS, the first of the Detroit Integrated Powertrain was rolling off the line—perfectly embodying Daum’s message of increased efficiency through integration today and the promise of continued improvement tomorrow.
Make no mistake, however, in that same view, the SuperTruck is not a revolution, but it is a revelation. According to Daum, 60% of the technology in the SuperTruck is viable today, which means that if the technology isn’t already in the truck, it will be tomorrow. This includes equipment like the integrated powertrain and 6×2 options. Fifteen percent of the technology—equipment such as rear view cameras and additional engine improvements—that Daimler is actively working on to put them into trucks, but will require more time. Only 25% of the technology in the SuperTruck is not feasible for today’s market. Technologies such as waste heat recovery,hybrid electric systems and lightweight materials such as the SuperTruck’s carbon fiber frame rails still need refinement to properly serve the truck market in terms of durability and the 18- to 24-month return on investment that truck purchasers demand. (You can read all about the SuperTruck on page 30).
Think about that for a minute: Seventy-five percent of the technology that pushed the SuperTruck average MPG up to 12.2 miles is equipment that fleet managers will put to work. Daum promised that Daimler is no where close to being finished and that the trucking industry will see even more innovation on a consistent one- to two-year cycle.
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