trailer world issue Two 2010

How does the future appear for the Commercial Vehicle industry and will goods continue to be carried by road? Leading industry figure outline their vision of the future.

6 Issue Two 2010 Future I The finite nature of oil reserves, climate change and traffic growth reaching capacity point demand great ideas for transport in the future. trailer world has taken a closer look at Utopia for road freight transport and enquired about solutions for the short and medium-term future. Transport Vision 2025 Visions take a courageous look at the future, they are great dreams to be achieved. But fantasies for road transport tend to be more sober, being tied to specific purposes and utility values. They concen- trate above all on possible solutions for the urgent problems of the present and the future. Efforts by the heavy goods vehicle industry focus primarily on reducing energy consumption for freight trans- port. Simply put, the future motto is to save fuel and thus energy. The ideas for implementing this vision are wide-ranging, but all share one common factor: transport will still use the roads, with vehicles rolling on wheels powered by a self-sufficient drive system, consist- ing in all probability of a combustion engine. The load train concept for the future At the IAA 2010 for ex- ample, MAN presented its Concept S study as a first concept for the truck-train 2025. This progressive trade-fair presentation intended to show practical possible solutions and stimulate discussion. MAN’s key messages: in future, aerodynamic design will play an even more crucial role in freight transport. And the truck and trailer must work together as a finely coordinated unit in order to save resources. Visually speaking, this idea is manifested above all in a stream- lined design of both truck and trailer. The latter curved upwards in a banana shape, designed to form a perfect match with the driver’s cab. This attractive unit showed a remote resemblance to a dolphin and presented scarcely any resistance to the head wind: the air sim- ply flows over the truck and trailer with little interference. There’s no denying the similarity to the legendary “Rumpler Tropfenwagen” (Rumpler teardrop vehicle) that sped along the highways of the Me- tropolis in 1925 in Fritz Lang’s eponymous visionary film. In spite of the futuristic design, MAN’s Truck 2025 still remains true to the principle of “towing truck with trailer”: the semitrailer as a one-piece transport container offers too many advantages for it to be deemed replaceable. Nor did the future road train combi- nation created by MAN’s chief truck designer Holger Koos and his team depart from the basic technical prerequisites of current truck- trailer combinations. Nevertheless, it does herald a clear change: away from the cuboid shape that braces itself against the head wind with an air resistance coefficient of about 0.5, to a streamlined de- sign with an excellent cw value of 0.3 which is on a par with that of modern cars. Combustion engine keeps on running According to Stefan Knecht, Head of Truck and Cab Development at MAN, the Concept S study which created quite a stir at the IAA is said to have carbon reduc- tion levels and corresponding potential fuel savings of up to 25%. The elegantly shaped bodywork of the MAN truck conceals plenty of in- novative engineering. Wheels with individual suspension offer added space for modified cooling systems. And the electrification of acces- sory units, powered by giant solar panels on the cab or trailer roof, permits a completely new combination of drive components working with conventional diesel or biofuels. “Diesel-based combustion is Graphics:Hoffmann

trailer world issue Two 2010

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