Peterbilt Announces Truck Upgrades, Customer-Convenience Options

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Transport Topics / March 25, 2015

Peterbilt Motors Co. unveiled a series of truck improvements and customer-convenience options in the middle of what executives said could be the second- or third-best sales year ever.

The Denton, Texas-based unit of Paccar Inc. also is working on autonomous vehicles, saying that platooning to save fuel would be the ideal application. The Peterbilt event was part of the Mid-America Trucking show here March 25.

“The industry has come back in a big way. We expect 2015 to be a great year,” said Robert Woodall, Peterbilt assistant general manager for sales and marketing.

Paccar is expecting industrywide sales of 250,000 to 280,000 units in North America this year, which would place 2015 behind 2006 and run neck-and-neck with 2005.

For vocational vehicles, Model 567 is coming out with a set-forward front axle that would distribute weight more broadly and “be good for mixers and other weight-sensitive applications,” company General Manager Darrin Siver said.

For customer convenience, Siver talked about Rapid Check and SmartLinq, two programs that can take note of a truck maintenance problem, help to diagnose it and then quickly set in motion a process to fix it.

On autonomous vehicles, he said generating “comfort with them from the public” will be the biggest challenge to getting them on the road.

Longhaul applications, including platooning where a caravan in close formation drives down a highway, are “a long way off.” Platooning saves money on fuel because the caravans have less wind resistance.

Siver said short trips within a closed facility would be a better start for autonomous vehicles.

The company announced two changes for its Model 579: a new 58-inch sleeper cab and improvements to its Epiq fuel economy package.

On the Paccar level, Siver said Landon Sproull, the company’s chief engineer for a decade, is now the general manager of Paccar’s engine division.

One of Sproull’s early responsibilities will be to lead the MX-11 into production, which is expected early next year, Siver said.

Peterbilt also is adding two natural-gas options to its lineup, Model 579 using LNG, and 337 with CNG.

Two years ago, natural gas was popular because it was so inexpensive relative to diesel fuel. Now with the drop in diesel prices, that is less so.

“The price of diesel has come down, but oil is very cyclical,” Siver said. He thinks natural gas can keep a market share of 5% to 10%, especially if oil climbs again.