Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) has announced that it has been selected to receive a $20 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the SuperTruck II program. The new award is part of a multimillion dollar, multi-year program to increase the fuel economy of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles while decreasing carbon pollution.

SuperTruck II is supported by the DOE under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. DTNA began work on the SuperTruck program in 2010, together with Detroit and other partners, including national labs, universities and suppliers. In the original SuperTruck program, DTNA and its project partners exceeded program goals by designing a truck that demonstrated more than 115% improvement in overall freight efficiency over a 2009 baseline truck and achieved more than 50% engine brake thermal efficiency. They hope to build on that success with SuperTruck II.

“We are proud of what we accomplished with the first SuperTruck program, but we knew that there was more opportunity to make gains in efficiency to improve both the environment and the profitability of our customers,” said Derek Rotz, DTNA’s principal investigator for SuperTruck. “Together with our partners, we will explore new technologies and realistic opportunities to improve the environment.”