The fact is, heavy commercial vehicle fuel economy is such an in-depth and important topic, there’s a lot to be said on the matter. Welcome to the third Part in our ongoing look at how fuel efficiency is improving as truck design and technological innovation change the face of the industry.
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Today, the movement to increase heavy commercial truck fuel efficiency has gone global. While an unprecedented level of cooperation between North American authorities and private industry has lit a fire under the quest for greater fuel efficiency, the effort has caught on the world over.
The New Global Game
A number of truck OEMs around the planet are staring a slate of global emissions and fuel economy standards in the face, and they want to get ahead of the game. Although industry players are making moves at different speeds, the end results end up unchanged.
As a result, companies like Daimler, Volvo and Paccar represent the global effort underway. It’s no secret then that Europe is the place to go where emerging heavy truck technologies are concerned.
According to many European industry insiders, the focus for our friends across the pond are looking beyond engine development alone. The fact is, there are practical limits governing how much fuel efficiency you can wring out of engine technologies.
To see major reductions in fuel usage and vehicle emissions, gains must be found from a variety of sources. Today, the focus lies in carrying more freight more efficiently, while using less fossil-based fuels.
Modern Engine Design
Modern engine designs only account for around 15 percent of the fuel efficiency improvements we see in heavy commercial trucks today. The rest of the fuel savings comes from advances in aerodynamics, telematics, truck driver training, advanced auto transmissions and light-weighting. Fortunately, that’s a lot of categories where more improvements can be made.
Advanced engines running at Euro 6 emissions standards are currently able to achieve around 45 percent thermal efficiency. Expect the next generation of engines to come in at 48 percent efficiency.
To achieve these gains, manufacturers are focusing on things like downspeeding, friction reduction, and variable valve timing. Other advances come in the form of using EGR instead of SCR systems and going with a higher fuel injection pressure utilizing multiple injectors. Modern trucks can also reduce losses through variable speed oil and advanced water pumps operating at optimized pressures and speeds.
These advanced air handling and water pump systems help to reduce friction in the piston group, and even go so far as to create a dynamic switching between a number of different combustion types.
Expect to see waste heat recovery systems turning a vehicle’s thermal exhaust into real, on-board power that can be drawn upon at a moment’s notice. The fact is, many of these improvements will come in the form of various part streamlining. Heavy commercial trucks are very much patchy and complex pieces of equipment, so realizing gains in accessory design is where the focus of most manufacturers lie.
Advanced in Aerodynamic Design
One of the interesting new areas of focus lies in intelligent aerodynamic systems. These technologies are able to deploy or retract when the vehicle is traveling at certain speeds. These advanced, intelligent designs might see their greatest use in the area between the tractor and the trailer.
In the future, we may also see a variable fifth wheel drawing the tractor and trailer closer as the vehicle cruises at highway speeds, which should greatly increase the rig’s fuel economy. When operating at slower speeds, the fifth wheel could create more separation.
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So as all these new advanced make their way into the modern truck design, what can we expect the truck of the future to look like? Looking at some modern collaborations, it’s not hard to see where the evolution in truck aesthetic is headed. Join us in the final Part of our four Part series on fuel economy, where we look at the direction truck design is headed in, as a result of the push for greater fuel economy.