Volvo Trucks North America President Peter Voorhoeve, calling the debut of his company's next-generation VNL "a quantum leap forward," noted that design sketching on the truck started "with a blank sheet of paper," adding that the resulting retooled aerodynamics and engineering achieve a fuel efficiency improvement of up to 10% over prior generation models. "This is our most innovative, fuel efficient and safest truck ever," he said.
"We changed about 90% of it," Director of Product Marketing Johan Agebrand noted of the current-generation VNL to the coming generation.
The up to 10% fuel economy uptick is a blend of 7% improvement from aero and 3% from powertrain improvement.
The new VNL will be the platform Volvo uses to usher in all its upcoming technologies, including battery-electric powertrains, fuel cell and renewable fuel and hydrogen internal combustion engines. The first 24-volt electrical infrastructure in the North American trucking industry and active safety features that are introduced in this new generation of Volvo trucks will be the standard for the future commercialization of fully autonomous trucks.
Because the electrical system is 24 volts, Agebrand said engineers were able to use smaller and lighter components. The 24-volt system was also needed to support redundant systems and autonomous systems.
