10 mpg- Cummins-Peterbilt ‘SuperTruck’ Passes Important Milestone

Let's see them put 107k on the super truck and drive across NY in a snow storm. Then they can brag about their engineering .

 

Why do they have to because that is not typical?

Fuel cost per mile using $4/gal fuel
10.7 mpg = $0.37/mile
5.0 mpg = $0.80/mile

120,000 miles a year x $0.43/mile = $51,600 in extra profit a year

 

5mpg? Unless you're hauling overweight or some other specialized you should be getting a bunch better than 5mpg with almost any truck. Compare apples to apples.

They get 10.7 mpg in a truck grossing 13k under max gross on relatively flat land away from heavy traffic areas using professional drivers selected for the specific task of maximizing mileage. I'll be impressed when they give that truck to a fresh out of school trainee, load it to 79,990, send it into the NE through the Poconos and Appalachians and get over 8.

 

Let the rookies have that cheap heavy crap freight on lanes nobody wants.

That is not a truck for rookies.

It is for serious O/Os who are serious about fuel mileage and are used to paying taxes on $100,000+ a year profit as a solo.

 

They should burn the truck and destroy all the paperwork, everyone should drive a brick down the road twin air cleaners. dual exhaust beside our ears, sun visors, ten different antennas, every inch have a light mounted on it.
This I know because the Koch brothers told me so.
It does not mean that every single thing on this truck will be practical for every wrought, but if just a couple make a slight difference, and you save a little money you can always send the Koch brothers a check.
Years ago we use to install texas bumpers on trucks, inches from the ground, to make a brick truck a bigger brick. every truck on the road today has things on it to make it more efficient, make it weigh less

 

The answer is in the "wave" truck walmart is comming up with...

Electric wheel motors, almost no driveline.. battery pack with small displacement gen set to keep batteries charged.. thus running engine at optimum rpm and fuel economy while allowingthe batteries to take the work load.. engine running just to charge the batteries similar to an Apu.

This will never happen as long as oil companies owneverything.

 

I have to say the test route and conditions seem more than a little bit cherry-picked. The Northeast is a huge freight market, let's see some real world loads and routes with this beast. Let's see an 80k gross load of apples from upstate NY farm country to central Florida. Or perhaps a meat load of similar proportions from TX to Washington DC.

The truck is technologically interesting. Let's get a real world shakedown and see if she can hack it.

 

Nobody said we shouldn't be looking for improvement but lets get real. There are existing trucks who's owners are on this forum that can get 9+ mpg at 65k lbs on that route. For that matter I drove a Freightliner Classic XL with the big stacks, drop visor, and massive air cleaners that hit 8 mpg in similar load and route with out even the benefit of a skirted trailer.

I'm not giving this truck a pass for getting 10.7 mpg in the conditions they use.

 

Cummins, Peterbilt and their program partners will have invested $38.8 million in private funds over the four-year life of their SuperTruck program when it draws to a close later this year. The project received critical support in matching grants from the Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Program.

The thing that got my attension is they spent 38.8 tax payer matched MILLIONS! 77.6 million over four years to make 10.7 mpg not even on a fully loaded truck on a round trip so half them miles where empty and that is all they have to show for it???