The North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) and RMI have released a new report, SuperTruck 2: Empowering Future Trucking. The report focused on lessons learned from the SuperTruck 2 program. The U.S. Department of Energy inspired American truck manufacturers by funding the first project to demonstrate a system of new technologies with the goal of demonstrating how greatly improving freight energy efficiency, reducing vehicle operating costs and improving environmental sustainability.
Five teams participated in SuperTruck 2: Cummins Inc. and Peterbilt; Daimler Truck North America; Volvo Trucks; Navistar; and PACCAR Inc. The report documents the significant technologies investigated, developed and demonstrated by the SuperTruck 2 teams, and the potential for these technologies to influence future production truck designs.
“SuperTruck 2 had the five teams looking at the entire tractor-trailer as a single unit which yielded significantly improved performance benefits vs. a more piecemeal approach,” said Mike Roeth, NACFE’s executive director.
“We concluded that the SuperTruck 2 teams achieved great improvements and delivered efficiency technologies to make zero-emission solutions more successful,” added Rick Mihelic, NACFE’s director of emerging technologies.
The report includes three key conclusions around fuel economy improvement, innovation diffusion, and the fact that many tractor-trailer system efficiency gains are universally applicable to all powertrain choices.
“The technologies deployed on the SuperTruck 2 vehicles can be used on alternative fueled trucks to increase both range and freight capacity,” Mihelic concluded.
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