Monthly Archives: mei 2012

Freightliner test run on CNG

Daimler Trucks North America presents a test result in the area of alternative drive systems. For the first time, a natural gas-fueled Freightliner Cascadia completed a tour from San Diego to Washington D.C. (approximately 2,700 miles), interrupted only by refueling stops every 350 to 500 miles. The CNG truck (CNG = compressed natural gas) only used public gas stations to refuel, thus impressively demonstrating that alternative drive technologies represent a real alternative even today. In light of this success, Daum promised that DTNA will keep pushing forward in the field of alternative drive systems and continue to cooperate closely with government agencies and form strategic alliances with other economic sectors. “We want to live up to our leadership position by promoting environmentally friendly, resource-conserving, and sustainable transportation solutions,” he said.

Now what the press release doesn’t mention is how much extra time was involved for all the tankstops. The problem of CNG is the small actiradius. Even with the long wheelbased American trucks there is not enough space for bigger tanks.

Ford testing the Transit

Ford shows how they test the doors of the new Transit series. It looks a bit like an Ikea testmethod to me but it seems to work!

First interior shot

On www.truckstar.nl I found this shot of the interior of the new Volvo trucks. The flat part on the dash has to be cammouflage but i think the position of the I-Shift is a real suprise. Every other manufactorer moved the gearbox functions to the steering column but in this testtruck it is still in the old position from the FH. Another unpleasant suprise is the bunk. The seat seams to be halfway the bunk, just like in a Scania. Look how far the backrest of the seat is behind the B-pilar!

MAN/Howo for China

MAN Trucks has a strategic agreement with CNHTC, and that is the Chinese company that builds HOWO trucks. New is the C7H model that has the MAN TGA cab with a different front. According to www.trucksplanet.com this model may be launched on the IAA exhibition in Hannover in september.

Chinees in Holland

Last weekend one of the Iepieleaks SpieSquad found this Chinese Howo Sinotruck in Eindhoven! And no, it wasn’t at the DAF but the truck was standing on the premisses of Prins Autogassystems. The truck has the old Volvo FL cab and the grille looks a bit like an Actros. Prins is working on alternative fuels for trucks and this could well be one of their projects. I don’t know if Howo Sinotruck is planning to come to Europe but i’ve seen these trucks in Africa and Latin America so you never know.

Thanks to Marco Delissen for the info!

 

 

New DAF on the road!

Iepieleaks follower and truckspotter Robert-Jan Onderwater spotted this Euro6 DAF truck today. He saw it comming up in his mirror and he new instantly that there was something about this white DAF. He was right! The front is slightly different to cammouflage the bigger cab hight but the most important difference is on the back of the chassis.

 

 

 

 

 

Here we see the battery’s on the back of the frame, together with a big airtank. Everything is done to create space for the Euro6 exhaust system on the truck. The new damper is quit big but DAF still manages to fit the 4×2 tractor with fueltanks on both sides.

 

Robert-Jan got a quick look inside the cab and he says the shape of the dash looks the same as the one we know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 On the drivers side of the truck we see a new part with steps to the catwalk. This probably is a part of the exhaust system or has the AdBlue tank in it.

 

Good work Robert-Jan! Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Genlyon by Iveco

Genlyon presents this new heavy truck on the ‘Auto China 2012′ exhibition. The truck is based on the Iveco Stralis.

Genlyon is a joint-venture with Iveco and FTP. China is important for Iveco. Last year half of all Iveco vehicles produced were sold in China. In total that were 143 thousend vehicles!

More Volvo, still cammouflaged

And another Volvo truck, still with all the cammouflage on.

These were send in by Paul van der Hoek, one of my Iepieleaks spies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder when this new generation is going to be presented. I assume the trucks will make their debut on the IAA but most of the times the international journalists get a preview. Rumours say the introduction is being delayed for more than once because the engineers didn’t give a ‘Go’. Volvo wants to be absolutely sure that this new FH, or whatever they will name it is 110% reliable at the time of the launce.

The cammouflage is very well done, because we still don’t have a clou what te truck is going to look like. The front grille looks completely different when you compare it to the leaked scale models that i published earlyer. In a few months we will see the result, and untill then we keep on speculating.