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Freightliner unveils new Cascadia

The new range launched overnight brings together a new design and technology advances

 

Freightliner has unveiled its latest heavy-duty truck, announcing the arrival of the new Cascadia in the US overnight.

Boasting a new exterior and interior design, Freightliner says the new safety, connectivity, and uptime features make it the “most advanced trucks Freightliner has ever designed”.

According to the Daimler subsidiary, those advances make the Cascadia set a course to lower “the Real Cost of Ownership (RCO) for customers.”

“With the new Cascadia, we have not just updated past successes,” Daimler Trucks North America senior vice president of sales and marketing Richard Howard says.

“Every aspect of the truck has been re-imagined.

“We are raising fuel efficiency, connectivity, safety, quality and uptime performance to even greater levels, and also introducing a premium driver experience as a powerful customer benefit and driver retention tool.

“Every element of the vehicle was examined and developed with an RCO-centric approach.”

 

New Look

The result of “hundreds of hours of testing” in the company’s wind tunnel and “millions of miles” of on-highway driving, Freightliner says the Cascadia “has a fresh, aerodynamic shape with dozens of sleek new updates, selected specifically to push fuel efficiency to the next level.”

These updates include an upper door seal, elliptical-shaped mirrors, sloped hood, bumper with integrated air deflector and integrated antennas.

Two additional packages are available – Aero and AeroX – that include longer side extenders, lower chassis fairings, drive wheel covers, and proprietary-designed wheel fairings.

Inside the truck, the new Cascadia features a number of layout changes.

A new arrangement of gauges and switches in the cabin, which Freightliner says is “ergonomically designed” to wrap around the driver, has been designed to reduce the need for leaning or stretching.

“Now more than ever, driver satisfaction, safety and comfort are essential to our customers’ success,” Howard says.

“Giving drivers a vehicle they are proud to operate – one with the latest safety features, productivity enhancements and creature comforts – was a priority.”

A new Driver’s Loft configuration has also been unveiled, along with a number of new leisure, storage, and workspace options

When it comes to noise, Freightliner says it has a few insulation packages.

For driver comfort, the truck maker says a new front suspension provides a “smoother ride and improved roll stiffness”.

 

Powerplant

Under the hood, the new range is still powered by an integrated Detroit powertrain, with either the 400hp and 1,750 lb-ft of torque DD15 or the DD13.

Both options ship with the Detroit DT12 automated manual transmission, Intelligent Powertrain Management (IPM4) and corresponding Detroit steer and rear tandem axles.

To assist in the saving of fuel, Freightliner says the included DT12 has been updated.

The new DT12 has been revamped to “improve fuel efficiency and reduce friction by using super-finished gears and use of low viscosity transmission oil,” Freightliner says.

“It also features the latest generation of intelligent powertrain management (IPM4), which uses a GPS-based system to anticipate upcoming road terrain and maximize the powertrain’s ability to utilise fuel most effectively.”

 

Technology advances

Rounding out the changes to the Cascadia models is a number of smaller advances.

In a move to improve safety, Freightliner has fitted the Cascadia with a full LED system and new headlights that incorporate the low beam, high beam, daytime running lamp, park lamp and turn signal lamp.

Freightliner has also further splayed the frame rails in the engine compartment to make more room for technicians working on the truck, standardised the LED lights to ease their replacement, and increased the engine air filter airflow to lower replacement intervals.

Connectivity advances also featured in the new Cascadia, with Detroit Connect facilitating information gathering and remote software updates for the truck’s engine.

Fuel and maintenance analytics will also form part of the package.

There has been no news as to whether the new Cascadia model will leave North America.

 

 

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