ATLANTA, Ga. -- Carlton Rose, president, global fleet maintenance and engineering at UPS, is challenging the trucking industry to define the excellence needed to realize cleaner cities, safer vehicles, and underlying technical knowledge. “If you’re the one who defines excellence, then you’re the one who shapes expertise to achieve it,” Rose said.
ATLANTA, Ga. – Eaton’s commercial vehicle group is leveraging broader automotive and electric expertise as it prepares for a future that is increasingly electrified and connected. A newly launched e-mobility business segment – combining elements of the company’s vehicle group and electrical business – is one of the latest signs of that. “There’s going to be a requirement for more power electronics on board,” observed Larry Bennett, director of vehicle technology and innovation, referring to the possibility of three-voltage systems on commercial vehicles. Eaton Electrical, currently responsible for 60% of company revenues, will help to apply lessons from buildings, leading to new smart power management tools and power distribution strategies, he said. There’s already been an increase in electric powertrains for buses and lighter vehicles, of course. And Eaton expects fully electric valvetrain actuation to be a reality within a decade. Hydraulic lash adjustments, now used in passenger cars, could soon manage intakes and exhaust in heavy vehicles as well.
OAKLAND, CA - Mack Trucks continues to see a healthy future for diesel engines, even as alternatives like electrification begin to emerge. "Diesel today, it's performing extremely well. It's cleaner than it's ever been, it's robust, it's versatile," said Roy Horton, director - product strategy, during a briefing in Oakland, California. As for talk about electric trucks? "It's almost a little bit of an uphill battle there." Electrification is "on the bubble, and it's something everyone is looking at," he said, admitting that the recent unveiling of Elon Musk's Tesla Semi attracted attention. "It's definitely going to be part of our future." Just not for longhaul. Not right away. Mack believes the earliest adopters of electrification will be operations with the chance to charge at a home base and not depend on general infrastructure for fuel. That includes refuse, local delivery, and public transportation fleets.
COLUMBUS, IN -- If you're one of those who's been thinking that Cummins is a dead duck, and that's been the tone of more than a few conversations I've joined over recent years, think again. Nothing could be further from the truth. First off, the company presently maintains an 80% market share in the North American medium-duty market, more than 90% of the school and transit bus markets, and still a decent lead on the class-8 side of things with something like a 40% share through June of this year. Dead in the water? Not exactly. Globally, the company is very strong. In 2015 it manufactured more than a million engines in the heavy-duty, mid-range, and light-duty markets -- from 50 to 650 hp -- and nearly half of them were from its joint-venture partner plants around the world.
ATLANTA, GA -- "There is a sea change in our industry with regard to electrification of the drivetrain," said Jay Craig, CEO of Meritor, at the North American Commercial Vehicle Show. The actual percentage of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles that will be fully electric or hybrid electric by 2025, he said, is not as important as the surety that the number will be more than it is today.
WASHINGTON, DC - Change is said to be one of the certainties in life, and Volvo Trucks is preparing for a future that is electrified, automated, and connected. But the company doesn't expect fully autonomous or electric linehaul trucks anytime soon. "It's a time of revolution when it comes to engineering and technologies," Chief Technology Officer Lars Stenqvist said during a media roundtable in Washington, DC. "This is the most fascinating and challenging era ever." While Volvo expects electric trucks to emerge, the company's electrification strategy is focusing on applications like ports, urban centers, and construction rather than the open road.
GATINEAU, QC - The founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nikola Motor Company suggests today's truck manufacturers face a fate similar to Kodak, which watched its film business collapse during the advent of digital cameras. "They [Kodak] were so powerful that they never expected to change anything," Trevor Milton said in an address to the 66th annual meeting of the Quebec Trucking Association. "Why change something that already works?" His Utah-based company is certainly looking to reinvent the idea of a Class 8 truck, as it looks to produce a hydrogen-powered electric model known as the Nikola One.
True zero-emissions freight transportation is closer to reality than you might think. TransPower USA has five Class 8 tractors currently in service at the Port of Long Beach, CA. The company also has several yard shunt tractors and school buses in real-world service. These trucks are not cobbled together McGiver jobs, either. They are highly engineered and look just like factory installations. These trucks could be the long sought-after solution to diesel emissions in areas with real air quality issues. We recently had a opportunity to test drive one of these electric Class 8 trucks and found it to be a very functional alternative to a diesel tractor. We had the truck without a trailer, so we can't report on its pulling power, but the company says the truck is powered by two 200-hp electric motors. That's 400 horsepower, plus you get the benefit of the very high torque output of the electric motors.
I've long held that North American headlight standards are inherently dangerous because they don't allow brightness levels to match the speeds we travel. It's just too easy to over-drive your lights, meaning you don't see obstructions like stalled cars or animals or -- may all the gods forbid -- pedestrians in the way until you're past the point of being able to stop in time. Even back in the 1950s when cars and certainly trucks were much slower, this held true. In fact it was worse.
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