DTNA Honored by DOE for SuperTruck Participation

Daimler Trucks North America won a distinguished achievement award from the U.S. Department of Energy for its participation in DOE’s SuperTruck program, the parent of Freightliner and Western Star Trucks said.

DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office cited the Portland, Oregon-based manufacturer for its “can-do attitude and willingness to take risks, resulting in twice the freight-efficiency goal of the SuperTruck project.” DTNA announced the award in a June 24 statement, and DOE confirmed the award.

All four major North American truck-making corporations participated in SuperTruck. DOE matched corporate spending to encourage research and development on increasing miles per gallon for heavy-duty trucks.

Earlier this year, Daimler announced the final results of its five years of research, reporting that its test vehicle achieved 115% freight-efficiency improvement over a 2009 baseline, surpassing the DOE goal of 50% improvement. The Daimler test vehicle achieved an average result of 12.2 mpg.

DTNA’s SuperTruck also topped 50.2% brake-thermal engine efficiency, meaning the engine converted more than half of the potential energy in diesel fuel into actual propulsion.

In 2014, DOE said it gave a similar award to the Cummins Inc.-Peterbilt Motors team for its SuperTruck entry.