AERO, POWERTRAIN ENHANCEMENTS TO BENEFIT ALL VOLVO CUSTOMERS

While adaptive gearing may not be a fit for many Canadian customers due to its requirement for high road speeds and its GVWR limitations, most of the enhancements built into 2016 model year Volvo VNs will benefit Canadian customers.

Some of these improvements can be found on the front end of the truck, in the form of a newly designed bumper that better directs air underneath and away from the wheels and other components. Flared chassis fairings kick wind away from the rear wheels. Under the hood, a new fan blade design and the relocation of the transmission cooler will together provide a fuel savings of about 1%.

A close-up look at the new bumper.
A close-up look at the new bumper.

The VNL630 gets a new roof cap that mimics the design found on the 780, Volvo’s most fuel-efficient truck. Collectively, these improvements are expected to deliver a fuel savings of up to 3.5%. That’s good for about $2,000 in savings each year based on US fuel pricing of $4/gallon and 100,000 miles per year averaging 7.5 mpg.

Of note, Volvo is continuing to see growing demand for its I-Shift automated manual transmission. Seth Gruber, director of marketing communications with Volvo, noted that 74.7% of Volvo trucks are being ordered with the now-standard I-Shift. That’s up from just over 50% when the I-Shift was standardized in early 2013. Volvo power can now be found in 92% of Volvo trucks, Seth added.

You can read more about the 2016 model year Volvo VN here.

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James Menzies is editor of Today's Trucking. He has been covering the Canadian trucking industry for more than 20 years and holds a CDL. Reach him at james@newcom.ca or follow him on Twitter at @JamesMenzies.


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